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^                               PRINCETON,    N.  J. 

Purchased  by  the  Hainmil!   Missionary  Fund. 

1 

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BV    2060    .T62    1890 
Todd,    Elbert    S. 
Christian  missions   in   the 
nineteenth  century 

•>*                           * 

:. i^- 

Christian  Missions 


Nineteenth  Century 


BY 

REV.  ELBERT  S.  TODD,  D.D. 


NEW  YORK:  HUNT  &»  EA  TON 

CINCINNA  TI:   CRANSTON  bf  STOWE 

1890 


Copyright,  1890.  by 

HUNT     &     EATON 

New  York. 


TO   THE 
CONGREGATION 

OF 

GRACE   METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  BALTIMORE. 

WHICH, 

WITH  A   KINDNESS  TRULY  CHRISTIAN,  AND   A  THOUGHTFULNESS 

PECULIARLY  ITS  OWN,   HAS  MADE  FIVE  YEARS  OF  THE 

writer's  SERVICE  SEEM   BUT  A  FEW  DAYS, 

THIS  LITTLE  VOLUME 

IS 

AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED 
BY  THE  AUTHOR. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  July  i,  1S90. 


P  REFACE 


Foreign  travelers  who  are  also  victims  of 
cacoethes  scribendi  no  longer  attempt  to  write 
up  Europe,  or  even  any  single  country.  They 
content  themselves  with  a  notice  of  places 
here  and  there  which,  not  being  on  the  beaten 
track  of  travel,  have  escaped  the  attention  of 
traveling  book-makers.  Such  is  the  present 
volume  ;  no  attempt  at  a  discussion  of  Chris- 
tian missions,  but  an  effort  to  call  attention  to 
some  phases  of  this  many-sided  theme  which 
seem  to  have  been  neglected. 

The  work  of  missions  has  too  often  been 
regarded  as  a  movement  entirely  modern,  and 
so  one  that  has  no  precedents  by  which  it  may 
be  guided  or  lessons  of  warning  which  should 
be  heeded.  Gross  injustice  has  thus  often 
been  done  to  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  of  apostolic  times.  The  experience  of 
the  past  has  been  gained  at  too  great  a  sacri- 
fice and  is  altogether  too  valuable  to  be  thus 


6  Preface. 

thrown  away.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
may  not  be  a  safe  guide,  but  to  refuse  to  re- 
ceive lessons  of  wisdom  which  her  history 
furnishes  is  equal  folly  with  the  captain  who 
refuses  to  allow  for  rocks  in  the  channel  be- 
cause they  were  made  known  by  the  wreck  of 
a  rival  boat. 

An  effort  is  made  in  these  pages  to  suggest 
some  of  the  most  obvious  of  these  lessons,  and 
especially  to  call  attention  to  valuable  hints 
which  they  furnish  concerning  the  question  of 
methods. 

The  author  omits  the  usual  appeal  to  the 
critics  for  mercy,  knowing  that  so  small  a 
spread  of  sail  on  literary  waters  will  be  likely 
to  escape  their  notice  altogether. 

Baltimore,  January  i,  1890. 


CONTENTS 


I.  PAGE 

The  Conversion  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  Ancestors.      9 

11. 
The  Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism 19 

III. 

Christianity  an  Oriental  Religion 32 

IV. 

Characteristics  of  Ethnic  Religions 41 

V. 
The  Solidarity  of  Humanity 68 

VI. 
War  and  the  Progress  of  Christianity 80 

VII. 
Commerce  and  Christianity 90 

VIII. 
The  Humanitarian  View 100 


8  Contents. 

IX.  PAGE 

Statesmanship  and  Missions 114 


X. 


Methods. 


140 


XL 
Success 162 


Christian  Missions 
in  the  nineteenth  century. 


I. 

THE      CONVERSION     OF      OUR      ANGLO-SAXON 
ANCESTORS. 

Ex  uno  disce  omnes. 

Grave  doubts  exist  in  the  minds  of  many 
as  to  whether  the  present  attempt  to  evangel- 
ize the  pagan  and  semi-pagan  nations  among 
which  our  missions  are  situated  is  not  an  at- 
tempt at  the  impossible  ;  at  least,  whether  the 
success  of  such  an  undertaking  is  not  highly 
improbable.  Such  opinions  are  openly  ad- 
vanced in  the  confidence  that  at  least  no  one 
can  show  that  they  are  without  foundation. 
But  what  if  it  be  answered  that  such  an  ob- 
jection is  at  variance  with  the  plainest  facts  of 
history;  that  not  only  are  there  numerous 
examples  of  such  conversion,  but  that  our 
own  Anglo-Saxon   ancestors  were   thus   made 


10  Christian  Missions. 

Christians,  so  that  we  ourselves  are  striking 
examples  of  what  is  declared  to  be  impossible? 
The  best  answer  to  the  charge  that  a  thing 
cannot  be  done  is  to  show  that  it  has  been 
done  repeatedly,  and  what  has  been  done 
may,  under  like  circumstances,  be  done  again. 

No  more  striking  illustration  of  this  appeal 
to  facts  could  be  desired  than  that  furnished 
by  the  conversion  from  paganism  to  Christian- 
ity of  the  Angles,  Jutes,  and  Saxons  who  were 
the  progenitors  of  the  English-speaking  race, 
the  history  of  which  is  both  a  thrilling  story 
and  a  convincing  argument.  Tacitus  informs 
us  what  unpromising  subjects  for  civilization, 
to  say  nothing  of  Christianity,  these  tribes 
were  while  they  still  dwelt  in  Germany. 

Gibbon  speaks  of  them  as  clothed  in  scanty 
garments  made  of  skins  of  animals  or  of  coarse 
linen,  and  dwelling  in  low  huts,  which  were 
constructed  without  use  of  stone,  brick,  or 
tiles.  For  sustenance  they  depended  on  wild 
game,  their  domestic  herds,  and  corn,  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  only  cultivated  prod- 
uct. As  for  money — they  had  none,  nor  at 
that  time  any  written  language. 

The   care  of  the  household,  as  well   as  the 


Our  Anglo-Saxon  Ancestors.        ii 

management  of  the  land  and  cattle,  was  left  to 
those  too  old  to  hunt  or  fight,  or  to  women 
and  slaves.  War  was  regarded  as  the  only  oc- 
cupation worthy  of  men.  They  were  immod- 
erately addicted  to  drunkenness  and  gambling, 
and  gloried  in  spending  whole  days  and  nights 
at  the  table,  where  the  blood  of  friends  was 
often  shed  in  drunken  brawls. 

Woman  seems  to  have  held  a  higher  place 
among  them  than  among  many  barbarous 
tribes,  though  most  of  the  drudgery  fell  to  her 
lot.  The  Saxons  accepted,  though  they  were 
too  uncultured  to  reduce  to  poetry,  the  sen- 
timent, 

"  Who  loves  not  wine,  woman,  and  song. 
Remains  a  fool  his  whole  life  long." 

They  worshiped  a  variety  of  visible  deities, 
among  which  were  fire,  earth,  and  the  ocean, 
together  with  many  imaginary  deities  which 
were  supposed  to  preside  over  the  most  im- 
portant interests  of  life. 

The  names  of  the  days  of  the  week  still  recall 
the  gods  that  were  then  worshiped.  They 
had  no  carved  images  or  visible  representations 
of  the  gods,  because  they  knew  nothing  of 
sculpture  even  in  its  rudest  forms.     We  know 


12  Christian  Missions. 

little  of  their  modes  of  worship,  save  that 
they  had  a  priesthood,  a  complicated  system 
of  divination,  and  believed  that  a  human  sacri- 
fice, now  and  then,  was  the  most  acceptable 
offering  to  the  gods. 

"  As  their  gods  were,  so  their  laws  were; 

Thor  the  strong  could  rave  and  steal ; 
So  through  many  a  peaceful  inlet 

Tore  the  Norsemen's  eager  keel." 

Such  were  our  ancestors — little  better  than 
savages  and  not  as  far  advanced  in  civilization 
as  the  average  pagan  nation  of  to-day — when 
they  crossed  the  English  Channel,  in  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century,  and  took  up  their  abode 
in  Britain.  They  brought  with  them  their 
language,  customs,  and  religion,  and  departed 
from  the  old  life  only  in  that  they  now  united 
against  the  Britons,  whom  they  rapidly  sub- 
dued, leaving  every-where  monuments  of 
human  bones  and  ruins  of  homes  and  cities. 
When  they  had  subdued  and  well-nigh  ex- 
terminated their  foes  they  turned  their  arms, 
as  of  old,  against  one  another,  and  Saxon, 
Jute,  and  Angle  were  engaged  in  an  indis- 
criminate struggle  as  to  which  should  be 
greatest.      Here    was    pagan    soil,    pure    and 


Our  Anglo-Saxon  Ancestors.       13 

simple  as  any  that  either  continent  can  now 
furnish. 

What  more  hopeless  task  seemingly  than 
for  the  Prince  of  peace  to  conquer  these  in- 
veterate fighters,  the  Lord  of  purity  to  make 
consistent  followers  out  of  these  constitutional 
drunkards  and  gamblers,  and  the  one  God 
come  to  be  accepted  where  there  were  gods 
enough  to  furnish  names  for  the  days  of  the 
week,  and,  if  desirable,  for  those  of  the  month  ! 
Yet  such  a  result  was  brought  about  and  by 
the  very  means  we  are  now  using  for  a  similar 
work  in  pagan  lands.  It  began  with  Gregory, 
on  whose  tomb  at  Rome  is  inscribed : 

"  To  English  Saxons  Christian  truth  he  taught, 
And  a  believing  flock  to  heaven  brought." 

Bede,  the  earliest  historian  of  the  English, 
tells  us  that  while  yet  a  monk,  Gregory  wan- 
dered through  the  market-place,  which  then 
was  probably  the  old  P'orum  of  Trajan,  and 
saw  a  group  of  slaves  of  fair  skin  and  golden 
hair,  who  were  waiting  for  a  purchaser.  Greg- 
ory at  once  entered  into  conversation  with  the 
owner  of  the  slaves,  of  which  Bede  has  the  fol- 
lowing account : 


14  Christian  Missions. 

"  From  what  country  do  these  slaves  come?" 
Gregory  asked.  The  trader  answered,  "  They 
are  Angles."  "  Not  Angles,  but  angels,"  he 
remarked,  "  with  faces  so  angel-like.  From 
what  country  come  they  ?  "  "  They  come," 
said  the  merchant,  ''  from  Deira,"  pronouncing 
the  word,  as  if  in  derision,  De-ira.  *'  Yes, 
plucked  from  God's  ire  and  called  to  Christ's 
mercy.  "  said  the  monk.  "  And  who  is  their 
king?"  When  told  that  his  name  was  Alia, 
he  remarked  that  it  sounded  a  little  like  Al- 
leluia, and  he  went  away  wondering  if  means 
could  not  be  found  to  send  the  Gospel  to  the 
Angles. 

Seven  years  after  he  was  made  supreme 
pontiff  at  Rome,  and  immediately  appointed 
Augustine  to  the  work  of  carrying  out  his 
cherished  desire  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Angles.  Augustine,  with  twenty  companions, 
set  out,  yet  the  goal  seemed  so  far  and  the 
issue  of  their  undertaking  so  uncertain,  that 
after  a  few  months  he  returned,  begging  that 
he  might  be  "  spared  from  undertaking  so  toil- 
some and  dangerous  a  journey."  He  was  bid- 
den to  persevere,  and  A.  D.  597  this  pioneer 
band  landed  on  the  very  spot  on  the  coast  of 


Our  Anglo-Saxon  Ancestors.       15 

Britain  where  the  wild  Saxon  tribes  had 
landed  on  their  first  entrance  into  the  country 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before. 

The  Saxons  had  conquered  the  Britons ; 
now  this  band  of  twoscore  had  come  to  con- 
quer them.  The  way  seems  to  have  been  pre- 
pared for  them  in  a  providential  manner. 
Ethelbert,  king  of  that  part  of  the  island,  had 
married  Bertha,  a  French  princess,  and  a  Chris- 
tian. Through  her  influence  Augustine  re- 
ceived a  hearty  welcome,  and  at  once  com- 
menced his  labors  at  Canterbury.  These  mis- 
sionary fathers  not  only  preached,  but  cleared 
the  land,  drained  the  bogs,  plowed,  sowed  the 
fields,  built  houses,  and  planted  vineyards — a 
method  very  like  to  a  much  discussed  modern 
self-supporting  plan. 

Such  success  attended  their  labors  that  at 
the  end  of  a  year  the  king  was  baptized,  to 
the  great  joy  of  his  Christian  wife,  and  the 
Christmas  following  several  thousands  of  the 
most  prominent  of  his  subjects  followed  the 
example  of  the  king.  Slowly,  but  certainly, 
and  for  all  time,  the  old  pagan  faith  gave  way 
to  Christianity;  the  heathen  temples  were 
cleansed  and  converted   into  churches,  and  the 


i6  Christian  Missions. 

old  gods  were  neglected  or  destroyed.  The 
foundation  of  the  first  English  cathedral  was 
soon  laid  at  Canterbury,  and  a  monastery  built 
for  the  training  of  missionaries,  who  were  sent 
into  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  There  were 
times  when  it  seemed  as  if  the  tide  was  going 
backward  ;  when  missionary  graves  multiplied 
on  every  hand  ;  but  new  re-enforcements  con- 
stantly arrived  from  Rome  to  fill  the  vacant 
places,  so  that,  in  the  space  of  about  one  hun- 
dred years,  all  the  English  kingdoms  be- 
came Christian — the  inhabitants  of  the  Isle  of 
Wight  being  the  last  to  cleave  to  the  idols  of 
the  fathers. 

So  completely  was  the  work  done  that  there 
is  not  a  single  worshiper  of  Thor  or  Odin  in 
existence,  and  only  a  few  names  left  to  speak 
of  a  once  unquestioned  religious  faith.  This 
work  was  accomplished  under  circumstances 
precisely  like  those  by  which  Christianity  seeks 
to  do  a  similar  work  in  our  day. 

Augustine  and  his  companions  went  to  a 
people  that  ''asked  not  after  them."  Our 
Saxon  fathers  were  as  content  with  their  re- 
religion  as  the  most  self-satisfied  pagans 
of  our  own    day.     The  missionaries    had    no 


Our  Anglo-Saxon  Ancestors.       17 

military  power  on  which  to  depend  ;  not  even 
a  single  soldier.  Yet  they  won  the  day,  and 
the  English-speaking  race  is  at  least  not 
pagan.  It  does  not  follow,  because  the 
Saxons  abandoned  their  idols  and  became 
Christians,  that  therefore  other  nations  will 
do  so ;  but  it  does  follow,  the  attempt  to 
evangelize  them  is  not  a  visionary  project. 
What  more  convincing  fact  could  be  conceived 
to  show  that  the  modern  missionary  move- 
ment is  not  chimerical ! 

All  that  is  now  urged  to  show  that  failure 
must  be  inevitable  was  then  present.  Are 
modern  pagans  dark  and  benighted  ?  So 
were  they.  Is  there  a  seemingly  insurpassa- 
ble  barrier  of  language  now  ?  So  was  there 
then.  Are  pagan  lands  far  away?  Britain 
was  much  farther  from  Rome,  if  you  count  by 
time  and  expense  required  for  the  journey. 
Are  the  pagans  of  to-day  wedded  to  their 
idols?  So  were  they.  Do  they  positively  re- 
fuse often  to  hear?  So  did  they.  Have  these 
nothing  on  which  to  depend  but  the  might  of 
truth  and  the  blessing  of  God  ?  They  much 
more.  Add  to  this  that  the  Anglo-Saxon 
character  has  been  shown  to  be  most  difficult 


i8  Christian  Missions. 

to  impress  because  of  its  strength  and  the 
tenacity  of  its  hold  on  all  that  is  peculiar  to 
it.  The  conversion  of  such  a  race  makes  the 
evangelization  of  any  other  race  an  easy 
problem. 

Paul  intimates  that  he,  the  chief  of  sinners, 
was  converted  for  an  example  that  no  one 
might  ever  despair.  In  like  manner  let  those 
who  doubt  the  possibility  of  modern  missions 
look  to  the  triumph  of  the  Gospel  over  the 
Saxons  and  take  heart. 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.    19 


II. 

missionary  triumphs  of  paganism. 

Fas  est  ab  hoste  doceri. 

The  present  condition  of  pagan  lands,  where 
error  seems  to  be  so  intrenched  by  centuries 
of  undisputed  sway,  seems  to  some  to  not 
only  create  a  doubt  that  Christianity  can  ever 
be  dominant  there,  but  to  constitute  a  conclu- 
sive proof  that  it  cannot.  But  from  the  same 
condition  comes  a  class  of  facts  that  strengthens 
our  faith  not  only  in  the  possibility,  but  in  the 
entire  practicability  of  the  scheme  of  modern 
missions.  It  is  the  old  argument  of  judging 
the  future  by  the  past,  and  reasoning  from 
the  fact  that  a  thing  has  been  done  that  it  can 
be  done  again. 

To  feel  the  force  of  argument  from  this 
quarter  we  have  only  to  call  to  mind  the  fact 
that  the  religious  systems  with  which  Chris- 
tianity has  to  contend  are  not  native  to 
the  region  where  they  now  flourish.  They 
are  themselves  foreign  religions,  and  obtained 


20  Christian  Missions. 

ascendency  by  the  very  means  we  propose  to 
use  in  replacing  them  by  Christianity.  After 
noticing  their  struggles  and  triumphs  it  is 
perfectly  natural  to  ask,  Why  may  not  Chris- 
tianity repeat  all  this? 

With  a  survey  of  our  mission  fields  the  ar- 
gument strengthens  at  every  step.  The 
traveler  in  Rome  meets  countless  priests  and 
abbots,  pilgrimages  and  processions.  Crosses 
adorn  the  most  imposing  buildings  and  dangle 
from  the  girdle  of  both  priest  and  nun.  Cathe- 
drals and  churches  are  on  every  hand.  Chris- 
tianity is  dominant.  But  one  feels  inclined  to 
ask,  Where  is  the  old  Roman  faith  ?  Where 
is  the  temple  of  Janus,  where  that  of  Mars? 
Here  are  the  ruins  of  the  Pantheon,  but  where 
are  the  gods  ?  Where  are  the  devout  worshipers 
of  Bacchus,  and  the  devotees  of  the  Saturnalia? 
These  Italians  are  true  descendants  of  the  old 
Romans,  but  where  is  the  faith  of  the  fathers  ? 
It  has  passed  away.  It  has  been  entirely 
superseded  by  another.  The  work  began  with 
a  few  refugees  from  Jerusalem  who  fled  from 
persecution,  and  were  not  only  Christians,  but 
had  a  religion  that  would  bear  transplanting. 
From  time  to  time    re-enforcements    arrived, 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.    21 

the  most  noteworthy  being  a  certain  man  of 
Tarsus. 

In  three  hundred  years,  without  a  single 
sword-stroke,  or  spear-thrust,  or  battle-shout, 
the  work  was  done,  and  the  Roman  Empire, 
by  virtue  of  an  imperial  edict,  as  well  as  by 
conversion  of  the  emperor  and  of  the  chief 
men  of  the  realm,  was  pagan  no  longer.  We 
certainly  gain  no  discouragement  concerning 
the  work  in  which  we  are  engaged  from  notic- 
ing that  imperial  Rome,  the  nation  of  iron, 
succumbed   to  the  preaching  of  a  few   Jews. 

Across  the  Ionian  Sea  is  another  instance,  in 

"Athens,  the  eye  of  Greece,  mother  of  arts  and  eloquence." 

When  Paul  landed  there  he  found  the  city 
wholly  given  to  idolatry. 

Not  only  was  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Olym- 
pus entirely  given  up  to  the  statues  of  gods  and 
heroes,  but  more  than  three  thousand  of  these 
were  scattered  through  the  citadel,  the  forum, 
and  places  of  public  resort,  so  that  as  Pausa- 
nius  says,  it  was  easier  to  find  a  god  than  a 
man  in  Athens.  Idolatry  was  embellished 
and  defended  by  all  that  sculpture,  poetry,  and 
music  could  do  in  the  period  of  their  highest 


22  Christian  Missions. 

development.  It  seemed  then,  so  far  as  man 
could  forecast  the  future,  that  Olympus  would, 
to  the  last  generation,  echo  with  the  praises 
of  Zeus  and  the  goddess  Minerva  hold  un- 
rivaled sway  in  the  Parthenon.  Minerva,  the 
goddess  of  wisdom,  if  appealed  to  at  this  time, 
would  doubtless  have  informed  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas that  it  would  be  quite  useless  to  attempt 
to  supersede  this  religion  of  the  beautiful  with 
a  faith  that  permitted  no  attempt  at  outward 
representation  of  the  divine.  That  "  the  un- 
known God  "  would  ever  succeed  in  banishing 
all  traces  of  Minerva  Pan,  Venus,  and  the  rest 
of  the  three  thousand,  seemed — and  was — most 
preposterous.  But  where  are  now  these  gods 
and  their  worshipers?  The  streets  of  that 
ancient  city  are  now  full  again.  The  inhab- 
itants boast  their  descent  from  the  men  of 
Marathon  and  Thermopylae.  The  ruins  of 
some  of  the  old  temples  still  stand — but  the 
traveler  who  might  chance  to  ask  a  modern 
Greek  in  the  streets  of  Athens  where  the  wor- 
shipers of  Pan  and  Juno  met  would  be  an- 
swered by  a  vacant  stare. 

The  religion  of  ancient  Greece  has  perished 
so  completely  that  all  our  knowledge  concern- 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.     23 

ing  it  for  at  least  a  thousand  years  past  has 
been  derived  from  the  books.  It  certainly 
does  not  show  that  the  ruder  forms  of  worship 
found  in  Japan,  Korea,  and  Bulgaria  cannot  be 
superseded  by  Christianity  to  notice  that  that 
precise  work  was  done  long  ago  in  classic 
Greece. 

**  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,"  shouted 
the  surging  crowds  of  Ephesus  as  they  hustled 
Gains  and  Aristarchus,  preachers  of  a  new  re- 
ligion, into  the  theater  and  before  the  magis- 
trates. The  temple  of  Diana  was  accounted 
one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world,  and 
the  image  of  the  goddess,  according  to  the  ac- 
cepted tradition,  had  fallen  down  from  heaven. 
If  this  was  so  she  should  have  been  able  to 
defend  herself  from  the  new  religion,  which 
swept  her,  Dagon-like,  into  the  dust  and  ob- 
livion. Let  the  weary  workers  along  the  Ganges 
and  the  Yang-tsze-Kiang,  with  the  millions 
who  help  in  their  maintenance,  think  of  Diana 
and  take  heart. 

Of  Egypt,  land  of  sphinxes  and  riddles,  one 
thing  we  know  certainly :  that  in  earliest  times 
she  was  idolatrous.  The  gods  of  the  land  and 
of   her   great    river   had  innumerable  temples 


24  Christian  Missions. 

dedicated  to  their  service.  The  ruins  of  vast 
buildings  once  connected  with  idolatrous  wor- 
ship, to  say  nothing  of  the  pyramids,  speak  of 
the  unquestioned  sway  of  a  religion  that  is  now 
of  the  things  that  were. 

The  dark-skinned  Bedouin  who  helps  the 
traveler  up  the  slopes  of  the  pyramid,  cannot 
tell  any  thing  about  that  religion,  indeed,  he 
never  heard  of  it.  He  only  knows  that  he  and 
all  his  are  Mohammedans.  So  far  as  he 
knows  that  religion  always  was  all  but  uni- 
versal in  Egypt. 

But  the  traveler  knows  that  the  religion 
which  had  its  rise  in  Arabia  in  the  seventh 
century  came  into  Egypt  along  the  track 
which  Israel  took  in  going  out  of  bondage,  and 
after  an  eventful  struggle  conquered,  and 
mosque  and  muezzin  and  Koran  triumphed 
where,  so  late  as  the  time  of  Ptolemy,  a  Roman 
soldier  was  put  to  death  for  killing  one  of  the 
gods  of  Egypt,  which  in  the  city  where  his 
legion  was  then  stationed  happened  to  be  a 
cat.  The  Christian  who  studies  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  great  monolith  brought  from 
Egypt  to  America  may  recall,  with  growing 
faith,  the  fact  that  it  has  been  the  silent  wit* 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.    25 

ness  of  a  complete  religious  revolution  among 
the  swarthy  natives  that  once  swarmed  around 
its  base,  who,  from  the  worship  of  Isis  and 
the  sacred  bull,  became  ardent  followers  of 
the  false  prophet.  The  pessimist  concerning 
foreign  missions  finds  no  food  for  doubt  here. 
The  greatest  problem  that  confronts  Christ- 
ianity to-day  is  that  which  presents  itself  in 
India.  The  ruts  of  religious  thought  and 
practice  are  so  deep  that  it  seems  to  be  im- 
possible to  get  out  of  them.  Two  hundred 
million  people  there  seem  to  be  welded  to- 
gether into  one  mass  that  is  as  impervious  to 
religious  impressions,  other  than  their  own, 
as  the  reefs  of  the  coral  islands,  which  are 
made  of  the  bodies  of  many  times  two  hun- 
dred million  coral  insects,  are  to  the  waves 
that  break  upon  them.  It  is  a  common  re- 
mark in  India  that  every  thing  seems  stereo- 
typed, or  run  into  unchanging  and  imperishable 
molds.  Yet  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  the  India  of  to-day  is  not  the  India  of 
two  thousand  years  ago.  The  change  is,  in 
part,  to  be  attributed  to  a  religious  ascetic 
known  to  the  world  as  Buddha,  who  was 
born  up  under  the  shadow  of  the    Himalaya 


26  Christian  Missions. 

Mountains.  The  religion  of  which  he  was  the 
author,  and  which  is  now  accepted  by  at  least 
one  fourth  of  the  human  race,  antagonized 
Brahmanism  at  every  point.  Brahmanism  had 
elaborate  ceremonies  ;  Buddhism  was  simple 
in  form  and  doctrine.  The  one  held  to  the 
despotism  of  caste ;  the  other  proclaimed 
''all  men  are  brothers." 

The  first  was  utterly  selfish  and  narrow  ;  the 
second  demanded  self-sacrifice  and  the  most 
boundless  benevolence.  The  first  was  in- 
trenched by  centuries  of  careful  observance  ; 
the  second  started  with  a  humble  ascetic  who 
had  not  a  single  soldier  to  back  up  his  claim, 
nor  a  rupee  in  his  treasury.  There  was  no 
modern  pessimist  on  the  ground  to  tell  him 
that  it  was  no  use,  so  he  commenced  to  preach 
and  make  followers.  All  the  world  now  knows 
that  in  one  hundred  years  Buddhism  conquered 
India.  A  reaction  occurred  a  century  after- 
ward by  which  Brahmanism  again  recovered 
its  hold  on  the  people,  and  Buddhism  was  ex- 
pelled. But  though  Buddhism  was  driven  out 
of  India  its  spirit  remained  to  impress  for  all 
time  the  millions  of  that  land.  It  had  vitality 
still  left  sufficient  to  send  its  missionaries  to 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.    27 

Cashmere  and  Nepaul,  to  the  Dekkan,  to  the 
people  of  Mysore,  to  Borneo  and  Ceylon,  to 
Thibet  and  Tartary,  where  it  still  lives  and 
rules  triumphant,  having  more  followers  than 
any  other  religion. 

What  does  the  notable  success  of  Buddhism 
at  the  beginning,  and  the  still  more  remark- 
able ones  further  on,  show  but  that  no  nation 
has  a  stereotyped  and  unchanging  faith,  and 
that  the  propagation  of  new  forms  of  religion 
is  not  only  possible  anywhere,  but  has  actually 
taken  place  almost  everywhere  ? 

Nor  should  the  triumph  of  Mohammedanism 
in  India  be  forgotten.  However  it  came  into 
India,  even  though  it  might  have  been  forced 
upon  the  people  in  the  beginning  at  the  point 
of  the  sword,  yet  when  the  English  came  to 
take  a  prominent  part  in  Indian  affairs  they 
found  Mohammedanism  growing  with  remark- 
able rapidity,  and  that  without  any  use  of  the 
sword.  But  for  the  interference  of  the  British 
there  is  little  doubt  but  India  would  be  a  Mo- 
hammedan country  to-day.  As  it  is,  one  fifth 
of  the  population  is  of  the  Mussulman  faith, 
and  the  increase  is  steady.  Unless  we  wish 
to    claim    for   Mohammedanism    more   truth, 


28  Christian  Missions. 

zeal,  and  adaptation  to  humanity  than  we  are 
willing  to  allow  to  Christianity  we  must  admit 
that  what  the  religion  of  the  false  prophet  has 
done  the  religion  of  Christ  may  do.  It  is  at 
least  encouraging  for  the  missionary  in  India 
and  for  his  friends  at  home  to  remember  that 
the  undertaking  in  which  he  is  engaged  can- 
not be  visionary  or  impracticable,  since  it  has 
already  been  accomplished,  and  more  than 
once,  on  that  same  soil  and  under  less  favor- 
able circumstances. 

But  the  most  striking  example  of  successful 
missionary  effort  is  furnished  by  China.  Up 
to  the  Christian  era  China  had  only  two 
forms  of  worship  :  that  of  Confucius,  her  great 
sage,  and  the  system  of  Loo-tse,  called  Tao- 
ism. The  people  were  wedded  to  these  sys- 
tems, as  they  generally  are  to  whatever  has  the 
sanction  of  age.  Whatever  may  be  charged 
against  the  Chinese,  no  enemy  ever  accused 
the  nation  of  being  fickle,  or  in  love  with  new 
ideas  and  ways. 

Buddhism  knocked  at  this  unpromising  door 
in  the  first  century  of  our  era.  That  the 
door  was  opened  somehow,  that  Buddhism 
came  in  and  has  met  with  astonishing  success 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.     29 

are  facts  of  history.  We  only  know  that 
while  the  new  religion  was  not  always  left  to 
make  converts  without  opposition  it  never 
met  force  with  force  or  used  any  but 
peaceable,  and,  on  the  whole,  worthy  means 
to  accomplish  its  ends.  The  Buddhist  temples 
that  every-where  abound  throughout  the  em- 
pire, and  the  men  of  the  ''  yellow  robe  "  that 
are  met  on  all  roads — and  with  much  gratifi- 
cation by  the  traveler,  if  he  happens  to  be  a 
stranger  and  in  need  of  protection — testify  to 
the  profound  respect  in  which  this  religion  is 
held  by  the  masses,  no  matter  how  much  it 
may  be  decried  by  the  Chinese  literati. 

Here,  again,  is  matter  for  reflection  con- 
cerning the  possibility  of  the  success  of  Chris- 
tianity in  China.  This  staid,  conservative 
people,  whose  most  cherished  motto  is  : 

"  Nor  change  nor  improvement  can  there  be  ; 
As  did  our  fathers,  so  do  we," 

so  far  forgot  or  set  aside  their  traditional  policy 
that  they  accepted  Buddhism,  and,  barring 
some  local  opposition,  gave  it  a  welcome. 
Shall  we  find  in  this  proof  that  they  may  not 
do  so  in  case  of  Christianity?  May  not  the 
missionary  in  China  be  justified  in  thinking  he 


30  Christian  Missions. 

sees  in  the  very  prevalence  of  Buddhism,  the 
religion  which  he  must  oppose,  reason  for  en- 
couragement concerning  Christianity?  Bud- 
dhism, a  foreign  religion,  has  succeeded  ;  there- 
fore Christianity  may.  The  former  is  saying 
to  the  latter,  like  the  guide  on  the  mountains, 
who  himself  climbed  up  a  steep,  to  the  traveler 
who  seeks  to  do  so,  ''  I  have  gotten  up,  there- 
fore you  can." 

Japan  is  a  still  more  recent  instance.  Shin- 
toism,  the  religion  of  the  native  inhabitants, 
gave  way  to  Buddhism,  and  now  the  struggle 
between  the  two  is  relaxing  on  account  of  a 
still  more  formidable  rival  for  the  faith 
and  affection  of  the  Japanese.  If  Christianity 
is  charged  with  being  a  foreign  religion  it  can 
say  to  Buddhism,  ''  So  are  you."  Equally 
striking  illustration  in  the  same  direction  might 
be  found  in  the  conquests  of  the  missionary 
band  that  from  the  head-quarters  of  lona,  in 
the  sixth  century,  spread  the  triumphs  of  the 
Gospel  over  northern  Europe;  the  splendid 
successes  of  Martin  of  Tours,  in  Gaul ;  of  Bon- 
iface, in  Germany  ;  of  Ulphilas  among  the 
Goths,  and  Patrick  among  the  Irish.  There  is 
scarcely  a  land  or  people  where  an  illustration 


Missionary  Triumphs  of  Paganism.     31 

may  not  be  found  of  a  religious  faith  that  at 
one  time  has  been  unquestioned  but  sub- 
sequently was  greatly  modified  or  entirely  set 
aside  by  a  better.  If  the  present  attempt  to 
convert  the  pagan  nations  to  Christianity 
shall  prove  a  success  it  will  only  be  a  repetition 
of  what  has  often  been  before.  If  the  his- 
torian of  the  future  is  obliged  to  turn  to  dust- 
covered  books  to  find  out  what  kind  of 
religions  Buddhism,  Brahmanism,  and  Moham- 
medanism were,  and  where  they  prevailed,  it  will 
only  be  a  recurrence  of  what  has  been. 
Modern  missionary  efforts  may  fail  entirely, 
but  they  are  not  attempts  at  the  impossible, 
or  even  improbable,  of  which  all  the  past  is 
witness. 


32  Christian  Missions. 


III. 

CHRISTIANITY   AN   ORIENTAL   RELIGION. 
Ex  oriente  lux. 

Still  another  objection  arises  against  the 
attempt  of  modern  missions  to  introduce  Chris- 
tianity into  the  East,  this  time  coming  in  the 
name  of  science.  The  law  of  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,  which  has  been  used  to  explain  the 
diversified  forms  and  varied  homes  of  the 
animal  life  of  the  globe,  is  held  to  be  equally 
true  when  applied  to  the  various  religions  of 
the  earth,  which,  we  are  told,  had  their  origin 
in  given  localities  because  there  were  the 
conditions  necessary  to  give  them  birth.  The 
same  conditions  surrounding  the  origin  would, 
of  course,  constitute  the  environment  most 
favorable  to  subsequent  development.  Nature 
has  thus  set  geographical  bounds  to  the  relig- 
ions of  the  earth,  and  any  attempt  to  pass  these 
limits  might  be  expected  to  bring  upon  the 
transgressor  the  penalty  which  Romulus  visited 
on  his  brother  Remus  for  leaping  his  wall. 


Christianity  an  Oriental  Religion.    33 

*' You  are  born  Christians,"  writes  Volney, 
in  his  Ruin  of  Empires^  "on  the  banks  of 
the  Tiber,  Mussuhnans  on  those  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, idolators  on  the  Indus,  just  as  you 
are  born  fair  in  cold  cHmates  or  sable  under 
the  scorching  sun  of  Africa."  Gibbon  quotes 
with  approval  the  prevalent  maxim,  "  In  every 
country  that  form  of  superstition  which  re- 
ceives the  sanction  of  time  and  experience  is 
the  best  adapted  to  the  climate  and  the 
inhabitants."  In  harmony  with  this  we  are 
reminded  that  the  religion  of  the  dreamer 
Sokya-Muni  is  just  adapted  to  the  enervating 
climate  where  it  had  its  origin  and  still  thrives, 
and  the  rude  orgies  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders 
to  the  peculiar  condition  and  temperament  of 
the  dwellers  on  those  wave-washed  shores. 
The  conclusion  is  then  drawn  that  since  Chris- 
tianity has  its  home  almost  solely  in  the  Oc- 
cident, as  paganism  in  the  Orient,  any  attempt 
to  replace  the  one  by  the  other,  in  the  light 
of  modern  science,  would  be  as  foolish  as  to 
attempt  to  displace  the  reindeer  and  the 
polar  bear  from  the  arctic  regions  to  which 
they  are  adapted,  and  substitute  the  zebra  and 
the  camel,  which  are  at  home  only  in  the  heat 


34  Christian  Missions. 

of  the  desert.  Let  us  be  scientific  for  once, 
while  we  apply  this  law  to  the  proposed  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  into  the  East.  In  doing 
so  we  need  to  recognize  the  fact  that  while 
Christianity  is  now  the  prevailing  religion  of 
western  nations,  it  is,  after  all,  a  stranger  there, 
its  true  home  being  that  very  East  into  which 
we  seek  to  re-introduce  it.  Christianity  is  in  all 
respects  an  oriental  religion.  It  was  born  in 
Mesopotamia,  cradled  by  the  Nile,  given  shape 
and  form  in  a  corner  of  Arabia. 

Its  wise  men  were  all  Orientals.  The 
prophets  were  all  men  of  the  far  East.  They 
taught  and  wrote  in  oriental  languages,  used 
figures  and  modes  of  speech  that  only  an 
Oriental  can  fully  understand.  The  Saviour 
of  the  world  was  an  Oriental  by  virtue  of  his 
race,  language,  style  of  thought  and  dress. 
Christianity  in  its  ancient  and  modern  form 
was  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  Eastern 
Hemisphere  for  forty-five  hundred  years. 

To  be  strictly  scientific  we  must  conclude 
that,  while  Christianity  can  never  have  a  per- 
manent home  in  the  West,  or  hope  to  overthrow 
the  worship  of  Odin,  or  the  Great  Spirit,  it  may 
be  expected  to  grow  and  thrive  abundantly  in 


Christianity  an  Oriental  Religion.   35 

the  East,  if  given  a  fair  chance.  However  it 
may  be  with  the  former  of  these  conclusions, 
the  latter  is  no  doubt  well  founded.  The  home 
of  Christianity  is  the  East,  and  there  are  the 
conditions  necessary  for  its  grandest  success. 
The  Bible  itself  can  never  be  properly  appre- 
ciated in  the  West,  because  it  must  there  be 
received  as  it  is,  as  a  translation  of  the  Bible. 

The  poems  of  Homer,  or  even  the  more 
modern  works  of  Dante  and  Goethe,  when 
translated,  lose  most  of  their  beauty  and  force, 
and  the  poems  of  Job,  David,  and  Isaiah  suffer 
no  less  when  put  in  an  English  dress,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  words  of  Jesus  and  Paul.  In  the 
East,  while  neither  the  Hebrew  nor  Greek  lan- 
guage is  now  spoken,  yet  languages  so  akin  to 
them  are  that  they  may  be  there  appreciated 
as  they  cannot  be  here.  Even  when  the 
language  of  the  sacred  book  is  rightly  in- 
terpreted the  customs  and  institutions  of 
the  country,  the  molds  in  which  the  writer's 
thoughts  unconsciously  run,  and  a  thousand 
other  things  which  help  to  reveal  the  meaning 
of  the  speaker,  defy  all  attempts  at  transla- 
tion. The  Koran  of  Mohammed,  over  which 
the  Arabs  are  enraptured,  when  put   into  the 


2,6  Christian  Missions. 

English  by  Sale,  is  both  dull  and  insipid. 
The  reason  is  that  the  translator  could  not, 
with  the  Arabic  words,  translate  the  sands  of 
the  desert,  the  nomad  life  of  the  wandering 
tribes,  the  strange  civilization  which  surrounds 
them,  or  the  real  meaning  of  the  wonderful 
imagery  in  which  the  Arab  takes  delight.  It 
is  on  all  hands  admitted  that  one  must  be  in 
some  degree  an  oriental  scholar  before  he 
can  appreciate  much  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
A  leading  homiletical  review  has-  therefore 
opened  a  department  in  its  pages  headed, 
**  Light  from  the  Orient  on  Bible  Texts." 

We  do  not  wonder  that  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen,  a  learned  Hindu,  wrote,  '*  Was  not  Jesus 
Christ  an  Asiatic?  I  rejoice,  yea,  I  am  proud 
that  I  am  an  Asiatic.  He  and  his  disciples 
were  Asiatics  and  all  the  agencies  primarily 
employed  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel. 
In  fact,  Christianity  was  founded  and  developed 
by  Asiatics  in  Asia.  When  I  reflect  on  this 
my  love  for  Jesus  becomes  a  hundred-fold 
intensified.  I  feel  him  nearer  my  heart  and 
deeper  in  my  national  sympathies.  Shall 
I  not  rather  say  he  is  more  congenial  and  akin 
to  my  oriental   nature,  more  agreeable  to  my 


Christianity  an  Oriental  Religion.    37 

oriental  habits  of  thought  and  feeling  ?  And 
is  it  not  true  that  an  Asiatic  can  read  the 
imagery  and  allegories  of  the  Gospel  and 
its  description  of  scenery,  of  customs  and 
manners,  with  greater  interest  and  a  fuller 
perception  of  the  force  and  beauty,  than 
Europeans?  " 

Much  of  the  Old  Testament  is  of  little 
value  to  us— the  minor  prophets,  for  instance — 
because  so  essentially  oriental  in  thought 
and  expression.  There  is  so  little  orderliness 
of  thought,  so  little  logical  arrangement,  so 
great  a  preponderance  of  feeling  and  imagina- 
tion, that  we  either  fail  to  get  any  meaning 
or  see  only  a  glittering  and  illusory  dream.  All 
this  is  different  to  an  oriental. 

The  waste-places  of  the  Bible  he  may  be 
expected  to  understand,  and  perhaps  inter- 
pret. Renan,  in  his  Life  of  Jesus,  says, 
"  Birth  and  education  in  the  West  unfit  one 
to  understand  oriental  religions."  It  certainly 
is  true  that  during  the  last  thousand  years, 
in  which  the  Bible  has  been  shut  out  from  the 
East,  little  advance  has  been  made  in  under- 
standing or  interpreting  its  truth.  It  has 
been  applied  in   practical  forms  in  the  West 


38  Christian  Missions. 

as  it  never  could  be  there.  Vast  systems  of 
theology  have  been  elaborated  purporting  to 
rest  on  Scripture,  but  really  based  on  phi- 
losophy. In  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures 
they  remain  about  where  the  early  church 
fathers  left  off.  We  still  go  back  to  those 
early  teachers  for  our  best  conceptions  of  the 
real  spirit  of  Christianity.  What  may  we  not 
expect  from  that  same  quarter  when  those 
who  now  pay  attention  to  the  Koran  or  Veda 
shall  turn  their  attention  again  to  the  Bible? 

Chrysostom,  after  reading  the  life  of  Sakya- 
Muni,  the  founder  of  Buddhism,  and  noting 
his  deep,  thoughtful,  and  even  mystic  spirit, 
wrote,  '*  Si  fuisset  Christianus  apud  Deum 
maximus  factus."  He  saw  that  there  was  soil 
from  which  Christianity  could  produce  its 
choicest  fruit.  We  cannot  but  believe  that 
not  only  Sakya-Muni,  but  thousands  of  the  Ori- 
entals, by  their  peculiar  mental  characteristics, 
training,  and  associations,  are  better  fitted  to 
grasp  the  deep,  subtle,  and  highly  imaginative 
poems  of  Ezekiel  and  Job,  and  the  profound 
discusssion  of  the  Logos  of  St.  John,  than  the 
man  of  western  education,  no  matter  how 
complete    his     mental     equipment.        Bishop 


Christianity  an  Oriental  Religion.    39 

Thompson  said  of  the  Hindus,  **  They  have 
characteristics  which,  if  sanctified,  would  en- 
able them  to  enjoy  the  plerophory  of  grace. 
Europe  is  too  proud,  America  too  worldly, 
and  both  too  materialistic.  India,  brought  to 
Jesus,  may  lie,  like  John,  in  the  Master's 
bosom." 

For  the  most  perfect  types  of  Christian 
living  we  also  look  to  the  East.  The  world 
will  perhaps  never  have  better  examples  of 
practical  Christianity  than  that  which  Pliny 
described  in  his  letter  to  Trajan,  or  that  which 
forced  from  a  pagan  emperor  the  confession, 
*'  See  how  those  Christians  live — how  they 
love  one  another!  " 

Religion,  in  all  its  forms,  seems  to  be 
more  at  home  in  the  East  than  in  the  West, 
and  the  man  of  the  East  more  reverent  and 
devout  than  his  western  brother.  The  infidels 
of  the  race  are  most  of  them  on  this  side  of 
the  globe.  All  the  great  religions  of  the 
world  had  their  origin  in  the  Orient.  The 
West  has  never  originated  any  thing  in  that 
direction  save  a  few  religionettes. 

The  fate  of  empire,  and  especially  the  tri- 
umph of  Moslem  arms,  drove  Christianity  out 


40  Christian  Missions. 

of  the  East,  where,  for  several  centuries,  its 
triumphs  were  marvels.  As  we  bring  it  back 
to  its  ancient  home  there  is  strong  probability 
not  only  that  it  will  live,  but  that  it  will 
attain  in  vigor  and  beauty  to  proportions  it 
never  knew  here. 

May  it  not  be  that  out  of  the  East  are  yet  to 
come  sages  and  heralds  of  Christian  truth 
who  shall  pay  back  with  interest  the  debt 
they  are  now  incurring?  Having  in  mind  the 
expansion  of  other  religions  in  the  East,  and  the 
phenomenal  success  of  Christianity  there  for 
several  centuries,  we  fully  expect  the  Gospel 
to  bring  forth  again  its  richest  harvests  back 
somewhere  about  the  old  hive  of  the  nations 
and  the  cradle  of  all  religions.  We  tender  our 
thanks  to  science  for  supplying  a  principle 
that  quickens  our  faith  in  the  evangelization 
of  eastern  nations  and  shows  that  even  the 
doubts  of  the  scientist  himself  at  this  point 
are  unscientific. 


Ethnic  Religions.  41 


IV. 

CHARACTERISTICS   OF   ETHNIC   RELIGIONS. 
Heu    pietas  !  heu  prisca  fides  ! 

Mohammedanism,  Brahmanism,  Buddhism, 
Taoism,  Shintoism,  and  Confucianism  are  no 
doubt  the  principal  false  faiths  with  which 
Christianity  has  to  contend.  Doctrinally  they 
are  far  apart,  yet  they  have  many  character- 
istics in  common  ;  so  much  so  as  to  justify 
their  treatment  as  a  unit.  Of  course,  state- 
ments made  concerning  ethnic  religions  as  a 
whole  will  be  more  true  of  one  than  of  another, 
and  may  be  altogether  wrong  sufficiently  often 
to  emphasize  the  rule,  but  not  so  frequently 
as  to  disprove  the  wisdom  of  treating  them  as 
a  whole. 

The  first,  and  perhaps  the  most  prominent, 
of  these  characteristics  is  that  they  offer  to 
their  followers  salvatioft  by  zvorks  alone.  It  is 
enough  at  this  point  to  offer  the  testimony  of 
Max  Miiller,  the  one  man  of  all  others  quali- 
fied to  speak  on  this  theme  ; 


42  Christian  Missions. 

*'  I  may  claim  that  in  the  discharge  of  my 
duties  for  forty  years  (as  professor  of  Sanskrit 
in  the  University  of  Oxford)  I  have  devoted 
as  much  time  as  any  man  Hving  to  the 
study  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  East.  And 
I  venture  to  state  what  I  have  found  to 
be  the  one  key-note — the  one  diapason,  so  to 
speak — of  all  these  so-called  sacred  books, 
whether  it  be  the  Veda  of  the  Brahmans, 
the  Puranas  of  Siva  and  Vishnu,  the  Koran 
of  the  Mohammedans,  the  Zendavesta  of  the 
Buddhists:  the  one  diapason,  the  one  refrain 
that  you  will  find  through  all,  is  salvation 
by  works.  They  all  say  that  salvation  must 
be  purchased,  bought  with  a  price  ;  and  that 
the  sole  purchase-money  must  be  our  own 
works  and  deservings.  Our  own  Holy  Bible, 
our  sacred  book  of  the  East,  is  from  beginning 
end  a  protest  against  this  doctrine.  Good 
works  are,  indeed,  enjoined  upon  us  in  that  sa- 
cred book  of  the  East  far  more  strongly  than 
in  any  other  sacred  book  of  the  East ;  but  they 
are  only  the  outcome  of  a  grateful  heart — they 
are  only  a  thank-offering,  the  fruits  of  our  faith. 
They  are  never  the  ransom-money  of  the  true 
disicples  of  Christ.     Let  us  not  shut  our  eyes 


Ethnic  Religions.  43 

to  what  is  excellent  and  true  and  of  good  report 
in  these  sacred  books,  but  let  us  teach  Hindus, 
Buddhists,  Mohammedans  that  there  is  only- 
one  sacred  book  of  the  East  that  can  be  their 
mainstay  in  that  awful  hour  when  they  pass 
all  alone  into  the  unseen  world.  It  is  the  sa- 
cred book  which  contains  the  faithful  saying, 
worthy  to  be  received  by  all  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  not  merely  by  us  Christians — 
that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save 
us  sinners." 

They  are  all  alike  religions  of  fear.  Love  is 
the  ruling  principle  of  Christianity,  prompting 
to  labor,  gifts,  and  sacrifices  ;  so  that  he  who  is 
not  in  all  things  inspired  by  love  is  by  so  much 
not  a  Christian.  Fear  is  the  active  spirit  of 
paganism.  It  drives  its  votaries  on  to  wor- 
ship ;  it  impels  to  deeds  and  sacrifices,  to 
penances,  to  self-imposed  stripes  and  inflic- 
tions. The  gods  of  heathenism  are  so  repre- 
sented as  to  create  fear  on  the  part  of  the 
worshipers. 

"  It  is  true  there  are  millions  of  children, 
women,  and  men  in  India  who  fall  down  be- 
fore the  stone  image  of  Vishnu,  with  his  four 
arms,  riding  on  a  creature  half  bird,  half  man, 


44  Christian  Missions. 

or  sleeping  on  a  serpent ;  who  worship  Siva,  a 
monster  with  three  eyes,  riding  naked  on  a 
bull  with  a  necklace  of  skulls  for  his  ornament. 
There  are  human  beings  who  still  believe  in  a 
god  of  war,  Kartikeya,  with  six  faces,  riding 
on  a  peacock  and  holding  a  bow  and  arrow  in 
his  hands,  and  who  invoke  a  god  of  success, 
Ganessa,  Avith  four  hands  and  an  elephant's 
head,  sitting  on  a  rat.  Nay,  it  is  true,  in  the 
broad  daylight  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
figure  of  the  goddess  Kali  is  carried  through 
the  streets  of  her  own  city,  Calcutta,  her  wild 
disheveled  hair  reaching  to  her  feet,  with  a 
necklace  of  human  heads,  her  tongue  protrud- 
ing from  her  mouth,  her  girdle  stained  with 
blood." 

The  same  might  be  written  of  the  gods  of 
China,  which  are  so  represented  as  to  appeal  to 
the  fears  of  the  people.  The  museums  of 
natural  history  which  contain  the  images  of 
the  gods  worshiped  by  the  savage  tribes  of 
the  East  Indies,  the  Sandwich  Islands,  some 
African  tribes,  and  the  original  inhabitants  of 
Mexico  and  British  Columbia,  furnish  abun- 
dant proof  that  those  grim  monsters  ruled  by 
fear. 


Ethnic  Religions.  45 

Gibbon  says  concerning  the  religions  and 
gods  of  our  ancestors:  "The  ancient  Druids, 
who  were  priests  of  our  ancestors,  had  few  rep- 
resentations of  their  deities;  but  their  temples 
were  in  dark  and  ancient  groves,  where  the  se- 
cret gloom  of  the  forest  impressed  the  mind 
with  a  still  deeper  sense  of  religious  horror,  and 
the  priests,  rude  and  illiterate  as  they  were, 
knew  how  to  use  every  artifice  to  deepen 
these  impressions." 

Not  a  single  one  of  the  religions  mention- 
ed can  be"  relieved  from  the  charge  of  ap- 
pealing exclusively  to  the  fears  and  not  to  the 
love  of  the  worshiper.  Hence  they  speak  of 
the  heathen  as  being  ever  busy  with  new  sac- 
rifices, new  propitiatory  and  votive  offerings 
to  the  gods,  always  led  by  fear.  Out  of  their 
fears  and  ignorance  combined  have  arisen 
some  of  the  gloomy  doctrines  of  their  creeds, 
such  as  the  doctrine  of  transmigration,  with 
its  ascending  series  of  animated  bodies,  innu- 
merable births  and  deaths  terminating,  after 
slow  cycle  of  ages  innumerable,  in  absorption 
in  the  deity. 

Dr.  Wentworth  says:  "The  writer  has  a 
tract  which  pictures  the  Buddhist  and  Taoist 


46  Christian  Missions. 

hells,  in  which  the  lost  are  tossed  by  devils 
with  pitchforks  into  the  craters  of  burning 
volcanoes  ;  bound  by  devils  to  hollow  pillars 
of  brass  while  fire  is  kindled  inside  ;  thrown 
naked  upon  floors  of  ice  or  precipitated  on 
beds  of  spikes ;  mutilated  in  all  conceivable 
ways,  sawn  asunder,  thrown  to  wild  beasts, 
subject  to  all  styles  of  degrading  transmigra- 
tion— into  animals,  birds,  insects,  and  vermin  ; 
pitched  into  pools  of  blood,  condemned  to 
cross  bridges  so  narrow  that  they  are  sure  to 
fall  off,  to  become  prey  to  serpents  and  scor- 
pions, with  many  other  styles  of  torment 
too  tedious  to  relate  and  too  barbarous  to 
mention." 

That  utterances  which  have  some  faint  re- 
semblance to  this  have  been  made  in  the  name 
of  Christianity  is  not  denied ;  but  what  of 
systems  which  offer  only  a  gospel  of  fear 
to  their  terror-stricken  followers?  Suppose 
Christianity  taught  only,  and  with  horrrible 
emphasis  and  particularity,  the  doctrine  of 
hell-fire,  it  would  then  offer  as  cheerful  a 
gospel  to  its  followers  as  is  now  proclaimed 
to  millions  of  the  race  under  these  pagan 
systems. 


Ethnic  Religions.  47 

These  religions  are  only  to  a  slight  degree 
ethical.  Though  sometimes  civil,  and  adapted 
to  purposes  of  state,  sometimes  miHtary,  and 
used  to  incite  a  wariike  spirit,  generally  ela- 
borately ceremonial,  they  have,  strange  to  say, 
little  relation  to  moral  conduct.  A  devoted 
worshiper  in  many  of  these  systems  may  lie ; 
he  may  be  guilty  of  fraud  and  adultery ; 
but  that  need  not  disturb  his  piety,  nor  will  it 
disturb  him  in  these  indulgences.  The  expla- 
nation made  by  the  apologist,  that,  '^the 
ethical  element  in  all  religions  is  late  in  being 
born,"  will  hardly  do  here,  where  it  never 
seems  to  have  been  born  at  all. 

We  must  not  infer  that  the  heathen  are  all 
immoral,  untrue,  or  impure.  Many  influences 
help  to  make  them  otherwise,  but  religion 
can  hardly  be  counted  among  these  forces. 
Neither  are  their  religious  teachings  destitute 
of  commandments  and  prohibitions  ;  but  they 
are  artificial  and  ceremonial. 

The  writer  of  an  article  on  Buddhism,  in  the 
midst  of  a  review  of  the  strange  tenets  of 
that  system,  breaks  out  with  the  exclamation  : 
"What  a  mass  of  moralities,  labeled  and 
marked  I     What  singular  ideas  of  the  value  oi 


43  Christian  Missions. 

merit  and  demerit !  Tiie  one — even  so  simple 
a  matter  as  a  good  wish — affecting  all  a  man's 
future  life  in  his  various  transmigrations  !  An 
evil  act  or  thought  of  demerit  condemning  to 
hells  without  number." 

The  morality  aimed  at  in  every  case  is  arti- 
ficial and  man-made.  According  to  the  teach- 
ings of  more  than  one  of  these  religions  hate 
and  contemplated  murder  might  pass  without 
notice,  while  to  eat  without  a  ceremonial 
washing  of  hands,  or  to  pray  with  a  spot  of  ink 
on  the  finger-nail,  would  involve  guilt.  Nor 
need  this  surprise  us  when  we  read  that  ad- 
herents of  a  far  better  system  were  devouring 
widows'  houses  and  for  a  pretense  making 
long  prayers,  plotting  to  kill  the  Son  of  man 
and  condemning  any  man  who  would  eat  an 
egg  that  had  been  laid  on  the  Sabbath.  In- 
deed, some  have  understood  a  sect  of  Chris- 
tians to  teach  that  while  it  would  be  wrong  to 
steal  a  sheep  it  would  involve  far  greater  guilt 
to  eat  of  it  on  Friday. 

Ram  Chandra  Bose  says  of  Mohammedan- 
ism :  ''  The  only  things,  almost,  about  which 
they  are  very  particular  are  the  laws  in  the 
Koran    about    prohibited    food    and     certain 


Ethnic  Religions.  49 

external  observances ;  and  consequently  lip 
profession  and  lip  worship,  accompanied 
with  abstinence  from  certain  kinds  of  food 
and  the  wearing  of  some  kinds  of  badges, 
pass  for  piety  and  godliness,  even  when  the 
character  of  the  parties  who  can  only  boast 
of  such  externality  is  depraved  to  the  very 
core." 

Concerning  Shintoism,  the  ancient  relig- 
ion of  Japan,  Dr.  Maclay  writes :  *'  We  may 
perhaps  as  well  state  at  the  outset  that  an 
examination  of  the  Shinto  literature  disclos- 
es the  fact  that  Shintoism  has  no  moral  code, 
enunciates  no  clearly  drawn  distinctions 
between  right  and  wrong,  presents  no  au- 
thoritative statement  or  illustration  of  the 
principles  of  morality,  and  does  not,  in  fact, 
enter  seriously  upon  the  discussion  of  any 
ethical  subject." 

Where  some  attempts  have  been  made  to  in- 
struct in  ethics,  either  from  lack  of  agreement 
as  to  what  was  right  or  the  absence  of  proper 
motives  to  enforce  the  teaching,  failure  has 
ensued.  In  some  cases  laxity  of  morals  can 
be  traced  directly  to  their  peculiar  teachings; 
as,   for   instance,   the   doctrine  of   Karma,   or 


50  Christian  Missions. 

fate,  which  underlies  more  or  less  all  these 
systems. 

Of  this  Rev.  T.  J.  Scott  says  :  "  This  doc- 
trine of  fate  furnishes  a  sad  example  of  tlie 
wide-spread  blighting  influences  a  vicious  idea 
or  doctrine  can  work  when  generally  received. 
The  idea  of  fate  has  repressed  and  blighted 
and  vitiated  human  life  as  the  breath  of  a  vast 
and  dreadful  pestilence.  Every  bud  and  open- 
ing flower  of  virtue  seems  blasted  by  it  ;  every 
growth  of  vice  and  crime  seems  fostered  by  it. 
It  crushes  human  progress  in  good,  but  forms 
a  favorable  atmosphere  for  the  development  of 
wickedness.  Thieves,  robbers,  murderers,  and 
monsters  of  debauchery  complacently  offer  as 
an  apology  for  their  stealing,  robbing,  murder- 
ing, and  debauchery,  '  Kismet  '  (fate)." 

Paganism  as  a  whole  has  no  morals.  Pagan 
peoples  have,  but  their  religion  ordinarily  takes 
a  path  which  is  quite  apart  from  the  domain 
of  ethics.  This  is  the  reason  why  under  the 
very  shadow  of  these  religious  systems  polyg- 
amy can  flourish,  infanticide  and  falsehood 
not  only  be  practiced  but  justified,  self-murder 
commended,  the  widow  be  immolated  with 
the  body   of  her  dead    husband,   children   be 


Ethnic  Religions.  51 

thrown  in  the  Ganges  or  burned  before  Baal, 
slavery  of  the  worst  forms,  and  the  degradation 
of  women,  justified.  What  can  a  reHgion  hope 
to  do  with  such  morals,  or  rather  with  such 
immorals,  as  these  ?  The  moral  condition  of 
humanity  anywhere  is  deplorable  enough  to 
suggest  a  comparison  to  the  man  of  Jericho 
who  had  fallen  among  thieves  and  was  left 
wounded  and  half  dead  ;  but  it  is  vain  to  look 
to  any  existing  form  of  paganism  for  help. 
They  may  be  depended  upon  to  pass  by  on 
the  other  side. 

These  religions  are  destitute  of  all  misssion- 
ary  spirit.  Granting  to  them  all  that  they 
claim  in  the  way  of  excellence,  yet  the  world 
is  no  better  off  on  that  account.  It  is  not  in- 
vited to  share  in  this  good,  and  in  some  cases 
is  positively  debarred  from  doing  so.  Max 
Muller,  in  making  a  classification  of  mission- 
ary and  non-missionary  religions,  puts  Moham- 
medanism and  Buddhism  along  with  Chris- 
tianity in  the  former  class.  What  is  no  doubt 
implied  is  that  these  two  systems  are  not  in 
their  nature  opposed  to  missionary  effort. 
They  are  rather  in  favor  of  it.  In  the  past 
they  have  each  known  times   of  great   expan- 


52  Christian  Missions. 

slon.  At  present  effort  at  expansion  has  prac- 
tically ceased.  Mohammedanism  may  make 
feeble  sallies  into  the  heart  of  Africa  and 
Buddhism  in  Central  Asia,  but  these  efforts 
are  increasingly  feeble,  and  must  at  no  distant 
day  cease.  These  two  religions  have  practi- 
cally passed  from  the  class  of  missionary  to 
that  of  non-missionary  religions,  leaving  Chris- 
tianity to  stand  alone. 

As  to  the  other  systems,  they  are  of  two 
classes.  A  part  is  opposed  to  all  missionary 
effort  on  principle.  With  them  religion  be- 
longs to  the  nation,  and  is  no  more  to  be 
shared  with  the  world  than  any  other  good 
they  happen  to  possess.  Such  has  always 
been  the  spirit  of  the  Brahman,  the  Parsee, 
and  the  Jew.  As  to  a  still  larger  class,  they 
are  eclectic — that  is,  they  hold  the  truth  as  so 
indifferent  a  thing,  so  carelessly,  that  it  is  no 
matter  what  one  believes. 

An  acute  scholar,  and  long  resident  in  China, 
writes  :  "  There  are  three  religions  in  China : 
Confucianism,  Buddhism,  and  Taoism  ;  and  it 
is  often  supposed  that  the  nation  is  divided 
between  these  three,  and  that  there  are  so 
many  Buddhists,  so  many    Confucianists,  and 


Ethnic  Religions.  53 

so  many  Taoists.  No  mistake  could  be 
greater.  Though  mutually  conflictive  and 
repugnant  these  three  systems  live  together 
in  perfect  harmony  in  China.  The  people  be- 
lieve in  them  all  and  they  belong  to  them  all. 
Such  is  the  latitudinarianism  of  the  Chinese 
that  they  would  neither  see  nor  feel  any 
thing  incongruous  in  being  members  of  every 
Church  and  subscribers  to  every  creed  on 
earth." 

Dr.  Wentworth  adds:  ''In  conversation 
with  Buddhist  priests  we  have  often  had  them 
tell  us,  'We  have  read  your  books.  Jesus  was 
a  good  man,  just  like  Buddha  ;  our  religion  is 
just  like  yours.'  " 

The  old  Greek  and  Roman  mythologies 
took  the  same  course.  Gibbon  says  :  "  While 
they  acknowledged  the  general  advantages  of 
religion  they  were  convinced  that  the  various 
modes  of  worship  contributed  alike  to  the 
same  salutary  purposes,  and  that  in  every 
country  the  form  of  superstition  which  had 
received  the  sanction  of  time  and  experience 
was  the  best  adapted  to  the  climate  and  to 
the  inhabitants.  Rome  gradually  became  the 
common  temple  of  her  subjects,  and  the  free- 


54  Christian  Missions. 

dom  of  the  city  was  bestowed  on  all  the  gods 
of  mankind." 

Great  praise  has  been  bestowed  on  these 
religions  because  of  their  liberality  in  tolerat- 
ing other  religions;  but  it  was  because  they 
held  the  truth  to  be  so  unimportant  that  they 
did  not  care  what  men  believed,  and  certainly 
would  not  bestir  themselves  to  give  them  a 
better  faith. 

The  systems  of  paganism  that  are  now  ex- 
tant all  profess  to  have  the  truth,  and  all  differ 
as  to  why  they  will  not  put  forth  effort  to  give  it 
to  the  world  ;.  some  because  they  are  opposed 
to  doing  so  on  principle  ;  some  because  they 
are  simply  indifferent ;  but  all  agree  that  the 
world  must  look  elsewhere  for  help.  This  is  a 
significant  confession. 

They  do  not  furnisJi  a  sufficient  basis  of  gen- 
eral integrity  and  public  confide7tce  for  the  car- 
rying out  of  extended  schemes,  benevolent  or 
financial,  or  for  the  adini?iistration  of  justice. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  commerce  is  in  the 
hands  of  Christian  nations.  This  is  not  be- 
cause for  the  time  being  Christian  peoples 
own  the  ships  and  happen  to  monopolize  the 
trade  of  the  world,  but   because  heathen  peo- 


Ethnic  Religions.  55 

pies  are  handicapped  and  entirely  unfitted  to 
enter  into  competition  with  Christian  nations. 
Organization  and  co-operation  are  the  watch- 
words of  this  business  age.  Indeed,  enter- 
prises of  magnitude  can  only  be  carried  on  in 
this  way.  This  is  only  possible  where  there 
is  a  good  degree  of  integrity  and  truthfulness 
and  business  honor.  Any  great  business 
scheme  must  collapse  the  moment  it  becomes 
known  that  dishonesty  is  the  rule  among  em- 
ployees. Heathen  religions  do  not  furnish  the 
conditions  on  which  commercial  prosperity 
may  be  based.  No  more  accurate  thermometer 
of  general  integrity  and  public  confidence  can 
be  found  than  the  rate  of  interest  on  money. 
Where  investments  are  certain  interest  is  low  ; 
where  uncertain  it  must  be  made  up  by  an  in- 
creased rate.  The  rate  of  interest  in  all 
heathen  cities  is  exorbitant. 

The  following  is  not  more  true  of  the  country 
of  which  it  speaks  than  of  many  others : 
''Additional  evidence  concerning  usury  in 
Hindustan  has  been  laid  before  the  council. 
A  ryot  borrowed  10  rupees  ten  years  ago  ;  he 
has  paid  no  and  still  owes  the  lender  220. 
Thirteen    years    ago    a    widow   borrowed    1 50 


56  Christian  Missions. 

rupees  (say  $75) ;  the  lender  has  taken  all  the 
products  of  her  forty-acre  farm  ever  since  for 
interest  alone.  A  ryot  borrowed  17  rupees  in 
1858;  he  has  paid  567  on  account,  and  still 
owes  375." 

Falsehood  and  deception,  where  generally 
practiced,  make  business,  except  on  a  small 
scale,  impossible. 

A  writer  already  referred  to  has  found  it 
necessary,  in  order  to  support  his  view  of 
heathen  religions,  to  clear  the  Hindus  from  the 
charge  of  being  persistent  and  outrageous  liars. 
He  goes  back  for  proof  to  Ktesias,  the  famous 
Greek  physician,  who  lived  B.  C.  400  and  to 
Megasthenes,  the  embassador  of  Seleucus  Nica- 
tor  ;  brings  up  the  testimony  of  the  king  of  Siam, 
which  is  now  sixteen  hundred  years  old,  and  of 
the  Mohammedan  conquerors,  which,  while  it 
might  have  been  in  point  five  hundred  years 
ago,  is  now  rather  stale. ^ 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  the 
report  became  so  widely  believed  that  a  Hindu 
trader  was  "an  ant's  nest  of  lies;"  and  it  is 
still  more  significant  that  those  who  hold  to 
that  opinion  are  those  who  have  dwelt  longest 

*  Miiller,  India;  What  can  it  Teach   Us? 


Ethnic  Religions.  57 

among  them  and  have  known  them  most  inti- 
mately. One  who  has  spent  most  of  his  Hfe 
abroad  says  concerning  another  people  :  ''  As 
a  people  the  Chinese  are  sadly  destitute  of 
truthfulness  and  honesty.  I  have  never  known 
a  heathen  in  whose  word  I  could  put  the 
slightest  confidence.  A  Chinaman  is  never  so 
much  in  his  element  as  when  telling  a  barefaced 
falsehood.  A  lie  with  him  is  just  what  a  smart 
repartee  is  with  us,  and  any  deception  he  can 
practice  is  regarded  as  legitimate  cleverness. 
A  Chinaman  can  be  thoroughly  honest  from 
policy,  but  he  is  seldom,  if  ever,  found  honest 
from  principle.  The  officials  are  known  by  the 
court  and  the  people  to  embezzle  their  hundreds 
and  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  and  yet 
they  are  not  regarded  as  disreputable  by  any. 
Bribery,  corruption,  and  extortion  fill  the  land." 
In  proof  of  this  we  offer  the  treaties  made 
between  the  several  Christian  nations  and 
heathen  powers ;  as,  for  instance,  that  between 
the  United  States  and  China,  which  stipulates 
that,  while  subjects  of  that  country  dwelling 
among  us  and  becoming  amenable  to  our  laws 
shall  be  tried  here  by  a  jury  of  our  people,  our 
countrymen  breaking  their  laws  shall  also  be 


58  Christian  Missions. 

tried  by  our  courts  and  judges.  This  stipula- 
tion is  made  because  of  the  known  lack  of  truth, 
impartiality,  and  justice  in  their  courts.  On 
account  of  this  want  of  integrity  the  customs 
service  in  several  heathen  countries  is  in  the 
hands,  not  of  natives,  but  of  foreigners.  This 
has  been  brought  about,  in  spite  of  the  prejudice 
against  them,  simply  because  the  revenue  pass- 
ing through  foreign  hands  was  found  to  be  so 
much  larger  than  when  managed  by  native 
officials. 

Notwithstanding  this  want  of  confidence  one 
in  another  in  business  affairs,  shrewd  and  enter- 
prising Chinese  merchants  thought  to  introduce 
among  their  own  people  the  business  methods 
which  the)^  saw  to  be  so  successful  in  other 
lands,  especially  that  of  forming  large  corpora- 
tions. The  result  is  told  in  a  Shanghai  letter 
to  the  London  Times :  "  The  general  break- 
down of  joint-stock  enterprises  created  and 
managed  by  Chinese  probably  results  from 
more  than  mere  inexperience.  It  brings  out 
clearly  a  serious  defect  in  the  Chinese  character 
which  will  prevent  their  ever  accomplishing 
any  thing  really  great  in  the  field  of  commerce 
or  finance — the  incapacity  to  work  honestly  for 


Ethnic  Religions.  59 

others.  It  is  the  same  defect  which  prevents 
their  civil,  mihtary,  or  naval  administrations 
from  attaining  to  any  position  of  importance. 
Peculation  rules,  from  the  emperor  to  the  coolie, 
and  in  all  their  undertakings  individualism  so 
strongly  asserts  itself  that  the  effectual  co- 
ordination of  forces  required  to  bring  any 
enterprise  to  a  successful  issue  is  not  attainable. 
It  will  no  doubt  be  a  great  disappointment  to 
the  enlightened  among  them  to  discover  that 
this  taint  on  the  character  of  the  people  is 
indelible,  and  that,  much  as  they  wish  to  get 
rid  of  the  presence  of  foreigners,  it  is  neverthe- 
less to  foreigners  they  must  apply  to  organize 
the  resources  of  their  country,  whether  by 
means  of  railways,  steam-boats,  mines,  or  any 
other  form  of  combined  effort  whose  success 
depends  on  the  certainty  that  every  man  will 
do  his  duty." 

This  condition  of  things  comes  out  in  even 
more  painful  forms  sometimes.  Paganism  is 
confined  to  the  more  densely  populated  coun- 
tries of  the  East,  where  the  conditions  of  life 
are  hard,  and  where  locusts,  floods,  drought,  or 
pestilence  reduce  thousands  to  the  verge  of 
starvation.    The  result  has  been  well  described 


6o  Christian  Missions. 

by  Medhurst :  '*  The  supreme  government  and 
local  authorities  at  such  times  profess  great 
concern  for  the  sufferings  of  the  people,  and 
measures  are  set  on  foot  at  times  on  an  exten- 
sive scale  to  organize  schemes  for  relief;  but 
inefficiency  and  corruption  nearly  always  inter- 
fere to  defeat  the  most  beneficent  intentions, 
and  little  or  nothing  is  eventually  effected 
beyond  the  bestowal  by  imperial  favor  of  a  new 
tablet  upon  a  river  god  or  the  offering  of  a 
special  sacrifice  to  propitiate  some  deity  sup- 
posed to  be  offended." 

This  condition  of  things,  if  not  the  direct  fruit 
ofpagan  religions,  may  justly  be  charged  to  their 
helplessness  and  indifference.  The  people  are 
utterly  unprepared  for  the  struggles  and  com- 
petitions which  the  age  is  sure  to  demand  of 
them.  They  must  for  the  present  content 
themselves  to  see  the  richest  prizes  in  the  way 
of  the  trade  of  even  their  own  land  pass  into 
the  hands  of  others,  and  they  themselves 
become  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water 
till  they  can  replace  their  pagan  morals  with 
Christian  sentiments  and  practices. 

These  religions  make  on  their  followers  large 
demands  of  time  and  money  and  give  them  back 


Ethnic  Religions.  6i 

practically  nothing  Paganism  is  costly.  This 
is  in  part  because,  being  destitute  of  any  real 
life  and  power,  it  endeavors  to  make  up  for  it 
in  showy  ceremonials.  Attention  is  diverted 
from  the  fact  that  Diana  herself  is  helpless  by 
attracting  attention  to  the  beauty  of  her  shrine 
and  the  pomp  of  her  worship.  Beautiful  groves 
and  imposing  temples  cover  inner  poverty  of 
spirit  just  as  numerous  living  priests  are  sup- 
posed to  turn  attention  from  the  fact  that  the 
idols  are  lifeless.  This  has  been  equally  true 
of  Christianity,  which  has  put  on  a  profusion 
of  leafy  ceremonials  in  the  measure  that  it  has 
been  wanting  in  fruit.  As  a  rule  the  ceremonial 
in  religion  is  the  most  costly  part  of  it.  It  de- 
mands beautiful  temples  and  shrines,  costly 
garments  and  sacrifices,  vast  numbers  of  priests 
and  attendants.  These  demands  extend  to  the 
individual  who  is  burdened  with  the  cost  of 
numerous  ceremonies  for  the  expulsion  of  sick- 
ness from  the  home,  of  blight  from  his  fields, 
or  of  guilt  from  his  conscience. 

A  foreign  resident  in  any  pagan  land  is  sur- 
prised at  the  number  of  religious  ceremonials, 
the  oft  recurrence  of  saints'  days,  the  frequency 
of   religious    processions,    and    the    continual 


62  Christian  Missions. 

appeals  for  aid  to  some  branch  of  religion. 
The  reason  for  the  distinction  so  often  made  in 
pagan  lands  between  a  religious  man  and  a 
secular  man  is  founded  on  the  fact  that,  for  one 
to  be  quite  religious,  he  must  give  his  whole 
time  to  it — and  then  fail  to  keep  up  with  the 
demand  for  prayers  and  superstitious  practices 
which  his  religion  imposes. 

Christianity,  with  all  the  benevolent  schemes 
which  attach  to  it,  costs  but  a  trifle  compared 
with  the  financial  burdens  which  paganism  im- 
poses on  its  followers.  In  the  simply  empty 
and  absurd  rite  of  propitiating  evil  spirits,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  worship  of  the  gods,  China 
pays  the  sum  of  one  hundred  million  dollars 
annually.  The  sacred  white  elephants  of  Siam 
are  covered  with  jeweled  garments,  sleep  on 
beds  of  richest  silk,  eat  the  choicest  viands  out 
of  golden  dishes,  and  have  their  smallest  wish 
ministered  to  by  a  retinue  of  attendants.  All 
this  the  people  lavishly  supply  ;  and  this  is  one 
of  the  smallest  of  the  burdens  which  their 
religion  lays  on  them. 

Attention  has  often  been  called  to  the  cost 
to  India  of  the  system  of  Brahmanism.  The 
support  of  a  vast  army  of  priests  and  religious 


Ethnic  Religions.  63 

mendicants,  the  erection  of  shrines  and  temples, 
the  penances  and  pilgrimages  imposed  on  the 
worshipers,  suggest  an  enormous  total.  Hence 
it  was  that  the  Mohammedan  conquerors  of 
India  found  the  -expenses  of  their  expedition 
paid  out  of  the  spoils  of  the  temples,  which  had 
been  gathered  from  a  people  noted  for  their 
poverty.  But  this  would  not  be  so  bad  If  any 
adequate  return  was  made  to  the  peojDle  for 
the  vast  outlay. 

Where  will  we  look  for  proof  that  these 
religions  offer  any  real  comfort  in  sorrow,  in- 
spire any  hopes  touching  the  hereafter,  or 
answer  any  real  longings  of  the  soul  ?  Polythe- 
ism, wherever  accepted,  precludes  the  possibility 
of  rest  of  soul.  Where  the  gods  are  many  some 
are  likely  to  be  propitious  and  others  Imagined 
to  be  angry,  and  so  the  worshiper  is  kept  in 
doubt  and  fear.  Any  misfortune  he  traces  to 
this  source,  and  finds  in  it  new  reason  for 
anxiety.  It  Is  equally  certain  that  many  of  the 
doctrines  of  pagan  religions  can  yield  only  a 
harvest  of  foreboding.  That  such  is  actually 
the  case  is  proven  by  abundant  testimony  in 
which  the  confession  of  the  heathen  themselves 
Is   prominent.     No    stronger   proof  could    be 


64  Christian  Missions. 

adduced  in  favor  of  this  view  than  the  marked 
pessimism  that  underlies  all  Eastern  religions. 

In  Christian  countries  the  opposite  or  op- 
timist view  of  life  prevails.  This  makes  it 
impossible  for  one  reared  under  Christian  teach- 
ing to  believe  that  the  Buddhist  ever  does 
mean  annihilation  when  he  speaks  of  his  longed- 
for  Nirvana.  That  he  does  mean  so,  and  how 
he  can  bring  himself  to  desire  it,  the  following 
extract,  written  by  Coomara  Swamy,  a  Hindu, 
may  suggest.  He  writes  from  the  stand-point 
of  the  Buddhist: 

**  Why  complain  of  future  non-existence 
when,  according  to  what  I  am  taught,  I  know 
that  till  now  such  has  always  been  my  lot.^ 
Nihilism  was  the  great  Sahara  and  existence 
but  the  little  oasis,  and  not  a  pleasant  oasis 
either.  To  revert  to  my  native  condition  can- 
not certainly  be  a  grievance.  Indeed,  how  can 
it  be  so,  if  one  will  but  dispassionately  study 
the  wretchedness  of  existence  ?  But  for  life 
there  would  be  no  sin,  no  pain,  no  punishment. 
True,  there  is  that  something  which  is  called 
enjoyment  in  the  world.  But  to  the  thinking 
miind  this  is  merely  a  will-o'-the-wisp  and  a 
delusion.     If  there  can  be  no  pleasure  without 


Ethnic  Religions.  6$ 

some  pain  being  associated  with  it,  why  have 
even  the  former?" 

Such  reasoning — and  it  is  precisely  such  with 
which  Buddhist  books  are  filled — could  only 
proceed  from  those  who,  unfed  and  unsatisfied, 
have  turned  to  annihilation  as  the  best  that 
offered.  Another  fact  which  looks  in  the  same 
direction,  and  which  the  traveler  in  pagan  lands 
is  certain  to  notice,  is  the  lack  of  any  trace  of 
joy  in  worship.  Paganism  is  almost  absolutely 
songless.  Mohammedanism  has  a  chant,  but 
there  is  no  trace  of  joy  in  the  minor  dirge.  Six 
hundred  million  Buddhists  are  songless,  as  are 
the  Brahmans,  Confucianists  and  Shintos. 
The  cheerless  systems  under  which  they  dwell 
leave  them  no  heart  or  theme  for  song.  On 
the  whole,  the  words  of  Isaiah  were  never  more 
pertinent  than  when  the  question  is  asked  mod- 
ern pagan  peoples,  '*  Wherefore  do  ye  spend 
your  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread,  and 
your  labor  for  that  which  satisfieth  not  ?  " 

These  religions  have  fallen  far  belozv  the 
standard  which  they  themselves  set  tip  in  the 
beginning.  Aiming  to  arrest  corruption  they 
are  themselves  conspicuous  examples  of  decay. 
The  searcher  for  proof  that  man  unaided  attains 


66  Christian  Missions. 

at  length  to  the  true,  the  good,  and  the  beauti- 
ful will  find  cold  comfort  in  the  study  of  these 
religions.  In  each  case  there  is  progress  down- 
Avard.  The  authors  of  the  various  treatises  on 
ethnic  religions  are  appreciative,  and  some- 
times enthusiastic,  as  they  speak  of  the  origin 
and  early  history  of  the  several  religions. 
While  they  confine  themselves  to  an  analysis 
of  the  ancient  books  they  retain  a  respectful 
tone.  When  they  turn  to  describe  religion  as 
it  now  exists  in  the  various  pagan  lands  we 
detect  a  growing  contempt  which  continues  to 
the  end  of  their  chapter. 

The  fact  has  often  been  pointed  out  that 
Brahmanism  was  purest  when  youngest.  The 
most  ancient  Vedic  poems  contain  the  loftiest 
conceptions  of  God,  the  more  modern  Puranas 
are  polytheistic  and  sensual,  and  later  develop- 
ments indicate  that  progress  is  still  going  on  in 
the  same  downward  course. 

Buddhism  in  its  fountain-head  is  at  least  a 
beautiful  poem.  Had  it  no  subsequent  history 
we  must  ever  look  upon  it  to  admire  and  be 
instructed.  As  we  trace  the  windings  of  this 
stream  through  the  muddy  fields  of  supersti- 
tion and  growing  depravity,  at  every  step  of 


Ethnic  Religions.  6y 

which  it  gathers  pollution  till  it  forms  the 
Dead  Sea  of  modern  Lamaism,  our  admiration 
is  swallowed  up  of  loathing. 

If  we  are  inclined  to  admire  Mohammedan- 
ism, and  wish  to  continue  to  do  so,  we  must 
confine  ourselves  to  its  early  development. 
The  farther  away  from  its  source  we  go  the 
less  of  truth  and  beauty  remains.  Ram  Chan- 
dra Bose  writes  of  Mohammedanism  what  is 
almost  equally  true  if  the  name  of  any  other 
pagan  religion  is  substituted  :  "  That  the 
political  power  has  been  on  the  wane  for  cent- 
uries, that  their  religious  influence  has  been 
declining  every-where,  that  their  morals  have 
been  debauched,  and  that  they  have  deterio- 
rated in  physique,  these  are  facts  too  well  known 
to  be  pointed  out,  facts  admitted  by  Moham- 
medans themselves." 

We  are  therefore  driven  to  the  conclusion 
that  for  all  the  purposes  for  which  religion  is 
supposed  to  exist — for  rest  of  soul,  for  com- 
fort in  adversity,  for  help  to  regulate  the  un- 
ruly passions  of  our  nature,  for  confidence  in 
the  hour  of  death — the  best  forms  of  heathen 
religion  as  they  now  stand  are  lifeless  and  im- 
potent. 


68  Christian  Missions. 


V. 

THE  solidarity  OF  HUMANITY. 

Nihil  humanum  niihi  alienum. 

We  have  no  Inclination  to  join  In  the  struggle 
which  Trench  Intimates  would  be  made  against 
the  Introduction  of  the  new  French  word  soli- 
darity, because  Its  meaning,  as  given  by  him, 
"a  community  of  gain  or  loss — a  being,  so  to 
speak,  all  In  the  same  bottom,"  shows  that  it 
supplies  a  real  want  In  our  vocabulary.  The 
word  not  only  expresses  the  relation  of  the 
several  members  of  the  French  Commune  to 
one  another,  but  a  growing  thought  with  refer- 
ence to  the  relation  of  the  several  nations  of 
the  earth.  They  too,  though  without  mutual 
pledges  to  that  effect,  are  in  the  same  bottom, 
to  sink  or  swim  together.  Humanity  is  a  unit 
and  all  the  nations  of  one  blood.  No  nation 
liveth  to  Itself,  no  people  goeth  to  honor  or 
shame  alone.  All  real  progress  must  be  of  the 
entire  race.  Local  or  sectional  advancement  Is 
of  value  as  it  affects  the  whole.     The  truth  of 


The  Solidarity  of  Humanity.      69 

this  statement  is  not  lessened  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  the  theory  of  any  accepted  science  of 
government  or  the  working  basis  of  any  nation, 
even  as  the  sun  was  still  the  center  of  the 
solar  system  long  before  Copernicus  announced 
it  to  the  world.  The  usual  practice  of  nations 
seems  to  have  been  ''the  good  old  rule,'' 

"  The  simple  plan, 
That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power, 
And  they  should  keep  who  can." 

Simple  as  this  rule  was  it  was  a  policy  that 
built  up  one  nation  on  the  ruin  of  others  and 
left  no  permanent  benefit  to  any,  like  a  great 
wave  of  the  sea,  which  shows  the  highest  crest, 
now  here,  now  there,  without  any  onward 
motion  to  the  waters.  Rome  grew  out  of  the 
ruin  of  Carthage  and  Athens ;  Athens  out  of 
the  wreck  of  Persia ;  Persia  at  the  expense  of 
Babylon ;  and  Babylon  out  of  the  plunder  of 
Jerusalem.  Temporary  elevation  of  one  nation 
was  not  then,  and  is  not  now,  necessarily  the 
advancement  of  the  race.  Napoleon,  that  great 
highway  robber  of  the  nations,  sought  to 
enrich  France  at  the  expense  of  all  Europe. 
He  succeeded  for  a  time,  but  in  the  measure 
that    France  was  strengthened  and  enriched 


70  Christian  Missions. 

Europe  was  impoverished  and  helpless.  He 
carried  away  to  Paris  the  finest  specimens  of 
art  of  most  of  the  capitals  of  Europe,  but 
their  temporary  location  in  Paris  added  noth- 
ing to  the  art  treasures  of  the  world.  It  is 
largely  due  to  Napoleon  that  Europe  is  a  vast 
military  camp  where  rival  powers  watch  each 
other  and  an  unfortunate  nation  is  in  the  posi- 
tion of  a  disabled  wolf  in  a  hungry  pack  !  But 
if  Russia  gain  territory  or  power  at  the  expense 
of  Austria  or  Germany,  at  jthe  humiliation  of 
England,  where  is  the  gain  to  the  race  ?  Such 
a  policy  is  not  only  selfish  but  short-sighted, 
and  in  the  end  suicidal.  There  is  no  real  gain 
which  is  at  the  expense  of  another,  even  as 
there  is  no  true  commerce  save  where  ex- 
change is  of  mutual  benefit.  The  nations  must 
go  forward  together,  if  at  all.  The  laggards 
must  be  aided  and  the  weak  defended  on 
ordinary  principles  of  self-interest.  '^  What 
great  reform  in  our  social,  political,  or  educa- 
tional system  is  most  needed  and  will  advance 
us  as  a  people  ?"  was  recently  asked  of  a  score 
of  the  best  minds  of  America.  Andrew  Car- 
negie answered,  "  The  world  does  not  move 
forward    in    any   one    department,    but    by   a 


The  Solidarity  of  Humanity.       71 

gradual  movement  along  the  whole  line."  In 
the  march  of  Israel  toward  Canaan  the  tribe 
of  Judah,  great  in  numbers  and  in  men  of  war, 
took  the  lead  :  Judah  might  easily  have  forged 
ahead  and  perhaps  entered  the  land  at  once, 
but  the  command  was  for  the  nation  to  advance 
as  a  unit,  and  to  go  no  faster  than  the  weakest 
tribe.  True  policy  dictated  that  the  strong 
should  help,  defend,  and  so  hasten  the  weak, 
and  by  so  much  the  advance  of  the  entire 
people. 

Suppose  Judah  had  used  her  superior 
strength  to  pillage  Ephraim,  and  deplete  that 
tribe  of  her  strong  men  for  the  burden  and 
the  march,  Judah  would  have  been  temporarily 
stronger,  but  all  Israel,  and  so  Judah,  would 
have  been  delayed  so  much  longer  in  the 
desert.  Even  so  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
which  are,  after  all,  but  tribes  of  a  common 
family,  have  been  delayed  in  the  march  toward 
the  goal  of  the  human  race  by  the  selfish 
policy  of  each  nation  ignoring  all  others  but 
its  own  and  acting  on  the  policy,  ''  Our  coun- 
try, right  or  wrong."  The  wisdom  of  a  broader 
policy  in  the  comity  of  nations  is  being  em- 
phasized by  the  logic  of  events. 


72  Christian  Missions. 

Among  the  most  significant  are  the  breaking 
down  of  the  barriers  of  nations,  the  end  of 
isolation,  and  the  era  of  migration  and  travel. 
Railroads  are  in  part  responsible  for  this,  of 
which  we  have  in  Europe  115,000  miles;  in 
Asia,  12,000;  in  Africa,  4,000;  in  Australia, 
nearly  7,000. 

On  this  side  we  have  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  146,000  miles,  in  Mexico  about 
8,000,  and  in  Central  and  South  America  to- 
gether a  like  number.  Altogether  there  is 
enough  railroad  in  operation  to  girdle  the  earth 
twelve  times,  and  enough  is  being  built  to 
make  a  new  girdle  every  two  years. 

Neptune's  horses  are  equally  busy  on  the 
sea.  England  alone  has  1,600  steam  vessels 
engaged  in  foreign  trade,  manned  by  200,000 
seamen.  She  has  many  times  that  number  of 
sailing  vessels,  and  is  but  one  of  the  nations. 
The  result  is  a  yearly  migration  in  all  direc- 
tions dwarfing  the  exodus  of  Israel  or  the 
barbarian  irruption  of  the  Huns  and  Tartars. 
In  the  last  thirty  years  7,500,000  immigrants 
have  made  a  home  in  our  borders.  We  send 
abroad  for  trade  or  travel  a  vast  number  of  our 
people,  and   England,  France,    Germany,  and 


The  Solidarity  of  Humanity.      73 

Russia  each  duplicate  the  number.  If  work- 
men are  needed  In  any  corner  of  the  world  the 
working-classes  flock  there  from  all  directions 
as  the  waters  seeking  a  level.  The  commerce 
of  the  West  has  left  a  sprinkling  of  Anglo- 
Saxons  in  every  port  of  every  sea  and  along 
all  the  great  highways  of  travel  and  trade. 
The  pinchlngs  of  poverty  and  hunger  have  re- 
sulted in  a  deposit  of  foreign  immigrants  in  all 
western  lands,  sometimes  like  a  light  snow 
after  a  storm  flurry,  and  sometimes  like  a 
stratum  of  mud  after  a  freshet. 

AH  the  great  cities  are  now  cosmopolitan, 
and  one  has  but  to  stop  and  listen  to  the  babel 
of  tongues  to  be  reminded  of  the  Babel  where 
they  were  once  confounded.  This  bringing 
together  of  the  inhabitants  of  different  and  dis- 
tant regions,  tends  to  counteract  sectarianism, 
mitigate  party  and  sectional  prejudices,  pro- 
mote unity  and  homogeneity.  Vast  sums  of 
money  are  now  loaned  from  land  to  land.  We 
are  Invited  to  world  conventions  for  the  char- 
ities and  humanities,  and  world's  fairs  for  the 
display  of  the  products  and  inventions  of  the 
earth.  The  nations  of  the  Western  hemi- 
sphere are  summoned  to  meet  In  convention. 


74  Christian  Missions. 

There  are  rumors  of  one  language  that  is  to 
take  the  place  of  existing  forms  of  speech,  one 
currency  for  all  the  world,  and  one  system  of 
weights  and  measures.  The  centripetal  forces  of 
common  interest  and  better  understanding  are 
certainly  increasing  faster  than  the  centrifugal 
forces  of  selfishness  and  lust  of  power. 
The  poet  writes  of  a  time  when 

"  The  war-drum  throbbed  no  longer  and  the  battle-flags  were 

furled, 
In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world." 

The  interests  of  the  human  race  in  all  quarters 
of  the  globe  are  becoming  so  intertwined  that 
there  seems  no  way  left  for  human  progress 
but  to  advance  all  along  the  line.  It  is  be- 
ginning to  be  seriously  questioned  whether  we 
can  reach  the  broadest  and  wisest  national 
policy  by  simply  striking  a  balance  between 
the  advantages  of  tariff  and  free  trade,  and 
thus  finding  out  what  is  best  for  us.  The  ques- 
tion will  still  remain  after  that  whether  what 
is  not  good  for  the  world  can  in  the  long  run 
be  good  for  any  one  nation? 

"An  English  minister,"  writes  an  emi- 
nent living  historian,  ''  must  be  an  English  min- 
ister first  of  all ;  but  he  will  never  be  a  great 


The  Solidarity  of  Humanity.         75 

minister  if  he  does  not  in  all  his  policy  recog- 
nize the  truth  that  there  are  considerations 
of  higher  account  for  him,  and  for  England, 
too,  than  England's  Immediate  Interests.  No 
man  can  truly  serve  his  country  to  the  best 
of  his  power  who  has  not  in  his  mind  all 
the  time  a  service  still  higher  than  that 
of  his  country." 

A  narrow,  selfish  policy  Is  becoming  year- 
ly more  dangerous.  There  have  been  times 
when  a  nation  could  sit  down  behind  im- 
passable barriers  of  mountains  or  beyond  dis- 
tant seas  and  build  up  a  civilization  untouched 
by  the  outside  world.  In  such  an  age  the 
prevalence  of  the  most  degrading  barbarism 
and  the  most  revolting  vices  made  little  differ- 
ence to  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  was  suffici- 
ently quarantined  by  distance  and  Isolation. 
This  is  no  longer  the  case.  The  leper  among 
the  nations  walks  abroad,  and  the  only  safe- 
ty Is  to  cure  him  of  his  disease.  He  may  be 
left  to  solve  the  problem  of  recovery  alone,  but 
he  Avill  have  revenge  by  poisoning  the  atmos- 
phere and  spreading  the  contagion. 

In  the  great  cities  of  the  world  not  a  few 
men    of    wealth  and  note,  though  notoriously 


'j^  Christian  Missions. 

not  overburdened  with  piety,  are  becoming 
munificent  patrons  of  public  charity  and  reform. 
They  are  learning  at  length  that  though  they 
may,  content  in  their  marble  palaces  and  in  cost- 
ly churches  on  Sunday,  let  the  vice,  crime,  and 
pauperism  of  the  city  severely  alone,  yet  it  will 
not  let  them  alone.  It  can  originate  strikes, 
burn  railroad  depots  and  tear  up  rails,  fill  jails 
and  alms-houses  for  the  rich  to  support,  fur- 
nish breeding  places  for  the  pestilence  and 
abundant  fuel  for  the  vices  of  young  patricians 
to  feed  upon.  Hence  the  same  worldly  policy 
that  accumulated  the  wealth  says,  Build  chap- 
els and  libraries  ;  open  midnight  missions  and 
reform  schools.  Save  us  from  the  masses  in 
the  only  possible  way — by  making  them  better* 
The  same  worldly  policy  is  calling  attention 
to  seven  million  freemen.  To  leave  them  in 
ignorance  with  votes  in  their  hands  would  be 
folly.  The  education  and  Christianization  of 
the  blacks  is  the  only  possible  safety  for  the 
whites.  Christianity  and  self-interest  are  for 
once  agreed ;  the  missionary  and  the  poli- 
tician speak  the  same  things,  though  for  dif- 
ferent reasons.  The  races  of  the  earth  that 
are  low  down  in  the  scale  of  intellicrence  and 


The  Solidarity  of  Humanity.       j'j 

morality  must  be  aided  for  a  like  reason.  The 
contact  points  between  Christian  and  pagan 
peoples  are  now  million-fold.  Sometimes  in 
place  of  virtue  being  imparted  by  the  touch  of 
civilization  pollution  is  received.  Wherever 
races  of  very  different  grades  of  civilization 
come  in  contact,  there,  for  a  time  at  least,  vice 
holds  high  carnival.  The  darkest  spots  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  are  not  in  the  center  of  bar- 
barous nations,  but  along  the  borders,  where 
drunken  sailors,  soldiers,  reprobate  merchants, 
and  the  scum  of  Christian  lands  meet  a  similar 
class,  and  each  learns  the  vices  of  the  other 
without  forgetting  his  own. 

The  bitter  cry  of  the  women  of  Alaska,  the 
open  shame  of  many  sea-ports  of  China,  Japan, 
and  India,  the  almost  entire  depopulation  of 
islands  of  the  Pacific  on  account  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  vices  of  civilization,  and  the  woes 
of  many  an  African  village  are  sufficient  evi- 
dence. The  influence  of  paganism  on  the 
moral  condition  of  the  age  will  be  noted  by  the 
historian  of  the  future  as  we  now  note  the 
effect  on  Europe  of  contact  with  the  Orient 
from  the  first  invasion  of  the  Moors  to  the  last 
crusade.     Bishop  Foster  says  of  paganism  in 


78  Christian  Missions. 

general:  *' It  hangs  as  a  ponderous  weight 
about  the  neck  of  the  race,  sinking  it  deeper 
and  deeper  into  night  and  death."  The  only- 
way  to  get  this  weight  from  the  neck  of  the 
race  is  to  help  the  nations  that  have  been 
blighted  by  false  creeds  to  replace  their 
baseless  superstitions  with  Christianity.  The 
human  race  is  a  unit,  like  a  human  body,  and 
tha  only  safe  policy  is  not  to  aim  at  an  ab- 
normal development  of  any  given  part  or 
organ,  but  at  the  symmetrical  building  up  of 
the  whole  system. 

The  part  that  is  neglected  will  make  its  pro- 
test felt  by  ruining  the  health  of  the  whole 
body.  The  Old  Testament  economy  was,  dis- 
claiming all  care  for  other  races,  to  build  up 
and  keep  pure  one  people.  The  failure  was 
signal  because  the  races  left  in  darkness  sooner 
or  later  corrupted  and  enticed  from  the  worship 
of  the  one  God  the  chosen  people.  The  wiser 
and  better  policy  of  the  new  dispensation  is  to 
"  go  into  all  the  earth  and  evangelize  all 
nations,"  This  is  the  work  which  modern  mis- 
sions essay  to  do.  It  is  not  a  little  encourag- 
ing to  find  that  the  human  race  is  being  shut 
up  to  this,  as  the  only  way  of  true  and  lasting 


The  Solidarity  of  Humanity.       79 

progress,  and  that  to  the  various  branches  of 
the  human  family  may  be  applied  the  words 
which  Franklin  addressed  to  those  who  had 
just  signed  their  names  to  the  immortal  doc- 
ument, ''  We  must  hang  together  or  hang 
separately." 


8o  Christian  Missions. 


Vl. 

WAR   AND    THE    PROGRESS    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

Paretur  pax  bello. 

The  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
ushered  in  amid  the  boom  of  cannon,  and 
there  has  scarce  been  a  time  since  when  the 
sound  could  not  somewhere  be  heard.  Russia 
had  a  short  and  sharp  contest  with  the  allied 
powers,  and  again  with  Turkey  alone.  France 
had  a  memorable  struggle  with  Germany  and 
with  China.  England  has  had  use  for  her  army 
in  the  Sepoy  rebellion  in  India,  the  Opium 
War  of  China,  in  Natal,  Abyssinia,  and  Egypt. 
Germany,  Italy,  Mexico,  China,  and  the  United 
States  have  each  had  severe  internal  struggles. 

At  least  fifteen  distinct  wars  have  been 
waged  during  the  last  thirty-five  years,  costing 
an  untold  amount  of  treasure  and  a  vast  num- 
ber of  human  lives.  It  is  a  matter  of  profound 
sorrow  that,  so  long  after  the  advent  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  the  gates  of  the  temple  of 
Janus  should,  as  a  rule,  be  open,  men  industri- 


Progress  of  Christianity.  8i 

ous  as  ever  in  perfecting  the  art  of  killing  men, 
and  the  world  still  be  willing  to  devote 
*'  twenty-six  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a  year 
to  Mars,  against  perhaps  twent3^-six  millions 
for  the  Messiah."  If  there  be  any  compensa- 
tion for  this  great  loss,  or  any  other  and  brighter 
side  to  this  dark  record,  we  may  be  pardoned 
for  dwelling  on  it  and  making  the  most  of  it. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  these  wars  have, 
for  the  most  part,  been  between  Christian  and 
non-Christian  nations.  Such  were  the  first  and 
second  wars  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  the 
fivefold  wars  of  England  in  the  East,  and  the 
struggles  of  England  and  France  with  Egypt 
and  China.  In  every  case  the  Christian  nation 
has  not  only  been  victorious,  but  has  been  able 
to  secure  substantial  advantages  for  the  cause 
of  Christianity,  either  in  the  way  of  securing 
the  privilege  of  extending  it  without  molesta- 
tion, the  protection  of  those  who  embraced  it, 
or  the  hardly  less  important,  though  indirect, 
advantage  which  the  prestige  of  victory  among 
a  heathen  people  gives  to  every  thing  belong- 
ing to  the  victor.  The  cessation  of  the  horrid 
and    unbearable    oppression    of   the    Christian 

population  of  Turkey,  the  complete  independ- 
6 


82  Christian  Missions. 

ence  of  Roumania,  Servia,  and  Greece  from  the 
rule  of  '^  the  unspeakable  Turk;"  India  freed 
from  despotic  rule  and  put  to  school  to  a 
Christian  nation  ;  China  open  to  trade  and  the 
Gospel,  and  Egypt  and  Anam  put  in  the  way 
of  a  Christian  civilization — these  are  some  of 
the  fruits  of  recent  wars. 

When  war  has  been  internal,  or  between 
Christian  countries,  the  result  has  been  little 
less  satisfactory  for  the  cause  of  truth  and  just- 
ice. The  freedom  and  consolidation  of  the 
Italian  States,  the  unification  of  Germany,  the 
preservation  of  the  American  Union,  and  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  are  unquestionably 
good  results. 

The  least  fruitful  of  all  these  wars,  the 
Franco-German,  by  crushing  the  military  con- 
ceit of  the  nation  whose  military  character  and 
history  was  a  constant  menace  to  the  peace  of 
Europe,  secured  as  substantial  benefits  as  the 
rest.  Five  sevenths  of  the  surface  of  the  globe 
is  now  under  the  direct  control  of  Christian 
nations  —  a  result  which  was  secured  very 
largely  by  war. 

The  issue  of  battle  has  in  nearly  every  case 
been  on  the  side  of  truth  and  progress,  and  in 


Progress  of  Christianity.  83 

no  case  has  it  acted  to  cripple  the  civih'zing 
forces  of  the  world  or  re-enforce  the  powers  of 
darkness. 

Much  as  we  deprecate  war,  the  world  could 
ill  afford  to  give  up  the  results  gained  by  it  in 
the  last  half-century.  We  make  no  apology 
for  war,  nor  seek  to  glorify  the  warrior.  The 
sword  has  too  often  been  used  in  the  cause  of 
selfishness  and  wrong  for  that.  We  fully 
admit 

"  Were  half  the  power  that  fills  the  world  with  terror. 
Were  half  the  wealth  bestowed  on  camps  and  courts, 

Given  to  redeem  the  human  mind  from  error, 
There  were  no  need  of  arsenals  or  forts." 

In  speaking  of  the  benefits  of  war  we  only 
magnify  the  grace  and  the  overruling  provi- 
dence of  Him  who  can  make  even  the  wrath 
of  man  to  praise  him  and  the  cannon  the  fore- 
runner of  the  Gospel  and  the  missionary.  The 
assertion  that  "  Christianity,  unlike  Moham- 
medanism, has  never  used  or  profited  by  the 
force  of  arms"  is  untenable.  The  conversion 
of  Europe  to  nominal  Christianity  was  partly  a 
work  of  the  sword.  From  A.  D.  500,  means 
effective,  but  not  all  of  them  Christian,  were 
used,  and  a  commission   to   evaneelize   meant. 


84  Christian  Missions. 

in  most  cases,  to  conquer.  Thus  Charlemagne 
introduced  Christianity  to  the  Huns.  In  this 
manner  Konrad  brought  the  Gospel  to  the 
notice  of  the  Prussians. 

Others,  as  the  Suevi  and  the  Goths,  accepted 
the  religion,  as  they  did  the  laws,  of  the  power 
that  conquered  and  ruled  them.  In  the  proc- 
ess of  time  that  which  was  simply  lip  and  knee 
service  grew  into  intelligent  faith  and  love. 
So  frequently  has  this  been  the  order  that 
John  Foster,  in  his  celebrated  essays,  says : 
"  Did  you  ever  listen  to  a  discussion  of  plans 
for  the  civilization  of  barbarous  nations  with- 
out the  intervention  of  conquest?  I  have — 
with  despair. '- 

The  fact  that  we  have  no  right  to  do  evil 
that  good  may  follow  does  not  prevent  the 
Ruler  of  the  universe  from  over-ruling  even  the 
wicked  passions  of  men  for  the  glory  of  his 
kingdom.  The  terrible  persecutions  of  the  first 
three  centuries  were  no  doubt  made  instru- 
mental in  the  triumph  of  the  Gospel  in  Rome. 
The  greed  of  the  East  India  Company  was 
clearly  overruled  for  the  lasting  good  of  India. 
A  Christian  poet  echoes  only  the  same  senti- 
ment when  she  sings : 


Progress  of  Christianity.  8 


"  I  have  seen  him  in  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred  circling 

camps  ; 
They  have  builded  him   an  altar  in  the  evening  dews  and 

damps  ; 
I  can  read  his  righteous  sentence  by  the  dim  and  flaring  lamps. 
His  day  is  marching  on." 

There  is  this  to  be  said  also  of  many  of  the 
wars  of  this  century — they  were  not  under- 
taken for  selfish  and  ambitious  ends.  They 
have  been  rather  the  inevitable  result  of  the 
contact  of  civilization  and  barbarism,  light  and 
darkness,  which  the  expansion  of  the  age  has 
brought  about.  The  citizens  of  Christian 
countries  are  migratory.  They  go  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth  for  knowledge,  trade,  or  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel.  Wherever  they  go  they  take 
their  institutions  and  the  appliances  of  modern 
civilization,  such  as  the  printing-press,  loco- 
motive, telegraph,  and  all  the  wonders  of 
modern  mechanism.  They  believe  in  liberty, 
justice,  equality,  and  the  spread  of  the  truth, 
and  these  ideas,  gained  after  ages  of  conflict, 
they  will  not  be  likely  to  give  up  or  cease  to 
maintain. 

They,  moreover,  cannot  look  upon  the  op- 
pression of  their  fellow-Christians  with  com- 
placency.    The  people  with  whom  they  come 


86  Christian  Missions. 

in  contact  are  ignorant  and  despotic.  They 
are,  moreover,  so  conceited  as  to  think  that 
they  are  strong  enough  to  cope  with  any  force. 
This  leads  them  to  provocation,  which  ends  in 
war.  These  conflicts  are  inevitable,  because 
commerce  and  contact  of  nation  with  nation 
are  inevitable.  Christian  nations  dare  not  give 
up  their  ideas  ;  heathen  peoples  will  not  theirs, 
and  no  way  seems  yet  to  have  been  devised  to 
settle  the  differences  which  arise  without  an 
appeal  to  arms,  unless  civilized  nations  consent 
to  cowardly  silence  and  inactivity  in  the  pres- 
ence of  injustice  and  wrong. 

When  the  spirit  of  Christianity  shall  exert 
its  proper  influence  among  all  people  war  will 
cease  throughout  the  world,  but  till  that  time 
*'  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come."  Those 
who  advocate  a  policy  of  non-resistance,  and 
whose  only  cry  is  peace,  should  first  show  us 
that  justice  and  peace  are  prevalent  which  war 
will  disturb.  However  we  may  cry  peace, 
trouble  and  sorrow  exist  on  the  earth,  and  real 
peace  is  often  only  to  be  gained  by  war. 

If  war  is  cruel,  and  it  be  "  a  libel  on  divine 
Providence  to  intimate  that  he  has  aught  to  do 
with  it,"  we  need  to   remember  that  there  are 


Progress  of  Christianity.     •     8/ 

some  things  worse  than  war.  There  have  been, 
and  are,  especially  under  the  despotisms  of  the 
East,  oppressions  and  tyrannies  of  which  we 
little  dream.  There  are  social  wrongs  which 
are  ages  long.  There  are  festering  sores  which 
only  the  bayonet  can  prick.  The  occupation 
of  India  by  the  British  lifted  the  curtain  on  a 
scene  of  awful  political  misrule  and  spiritual 
darkness  which  could  allow  a  petty  ruler  to 
build  a  tomb  at  a  cost  of  ten  million  dollars, 
wrung  from  the  poor,  and  by  the  enforced 
labor  of  twenty  thousand  workmen,  who  for 
seventeen  years  wrought  without  compensa- 
tion, and  could  allow  a  ruler  to  levy  a  tax  of 
four  fifths  of  all  the  product  of  shop  or  farm  on 
a  people  so  blind  as  to  give  the  other  fifth  to 
support  a  system  of  religion  which  demanded, 
and  received,  an  annual  holocaust  of  thirty 
thousand  widows  and  many  times  that  number 
of  both  men  and  women  as  victims  to  Kali. 
The  cry  from  the  Christians  of  Turkey,  which 
precipitated  at  least  one  war,  was  not  only 
because,  as  Christians,  they  were  oppressed, 
but  because,  as  subjects,  they  had  no  rights 
they  could  call  their  own,  and  were  under  the 
dominion  of  petty  pashas,  "who  were  so  many 


88  Christian  Missions. 

sponges  put  over  the  ground  in  order  to  suck 
up  the  wealth  of  the  inhabitants  that  it  might 
be  the  more  readily  squeezed  into  the  sultan's 
coffers." 

In  the  Zulu  War  many  were  no  doubt  slain, 
and  the  war  by  many  was,  therefore,  con- 
demned as  cruel ;  but  there  was  hardly  more 
cruelty  in  the  land  during  the  war  than  when 
in  its  normal  condition  of  peace.  Just  before 
the  war  Cetewayo,  on  assembling  his  army  and 
finding,  as ,  a  matter  of  course,  many  absent 
on  account  of  sickness,  said,  "  You  sick  men 
are  of  no  use  to  the  country,  and  I  will  save 
the  doctors  the  trouble  of  attending  you,"  so 
he  sent  and  killed  them.  The  question  of  war 
being  cruel  is  at  least  an  open  one  when  the 
first  condition  of  the  treaty  gained  by  it  was 
"  indiscriminate  shedding  of  blood  shall  cease, 
and  no  Zulu  be  killed  without  a  trial." 

China  is  ruled  by  a  dynasty  which,  pretend- 
ing to  a  paternal  care  of  the  people,  has  the 
parental  love  of  an  ostrich,  which  deserts  its 
young,  and  which  may  fairly  allow  the  country 
to  enter  the  list  of  the  nations  for  the  prize  of 
being  the  worst  governed  country  on  the  face 
of  the  earth. 


Progress  of  Christianity.  89 

War  may  be  cruel  but  It  is  short  and  deci- 
sive, which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  many  of 
the  evils  for  which  it  seems  to  be  the  only 
antidote  ;  and  on  the  score  of  humanity 
simply  we  might  well  pray  that  the  sound  of 
the  cannon  may  ere  long  be  heard  in  some 
regions  which  now  enjoy  peace,  but  which  is 
only  the  peace  of  despair  or  death.  Do  we 
not,  therefore,  err  when  we  infer  that  because 
we  hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars,  therefore 
the  Gospel  of  peace  is  inoperative,  or  the  hands 
on  the  dial  of  the  world's  progress  are  moving 
backward  ? 


90  Christian  Missions. 


VII. 

COMMERCE   AND   CHRISTIANITY. 

Argumentum  ad  crumenam. 

Commerce  and  the  Gospel  have  been  inti- 
mately associated  ever  since  the  days  when  fish- 
ermen and  tax  collectors  were  the  chosen  her- 
alds. The  seller  of  purple  of  Thyatira  and  the 
tanner  of  Joppa  received  the  early  evangelists 
into  their  houses  ;  the  corn  ships  of  Alexandria 
carried  them  over  the  sea,  and  the  manufacture 
of  goat's  hair  tents  furnished  a  means  by  which 
they  might  not  be  burdensome  to  any.  Since 
that  time  the  centers  of  trade  have  been  the 
strongholds  of  the  Gospel.  Christianity  has 
pushed  along  the  track  of  commerce,  partly 
because  in  its  very  spirit  it  is  allied  to  the  ac- 
tivities of  daily  life  and  must  be  carried  off  by 
main  force,  if  at  all,  to  the  hermit's  cell,  and 
partly  because  trade  furnishes  the  financial 
basis  as  well  as  the  open  door  for  the  carrying 
out  of  the  great  commission. 

This  debt  to  commerce  the  Gospel  has  richly 


Commerce  and  Christianity,        91 

repaid  by  bringing  distant  tribes  into  contact 
with  civilization,  opening  up  new  avenues  of 
trade  and  creating  a  multitude  of  artificial 
wants  that  only  commerce  can  supply. 

Rev.  Henry  Harden  says  of  central  Turkey 
what  is  equally  true  of  other  lands :  "  The  Ori- 
ental, when  left  to  himself,  is  entirely  satisfied 
with  the  customs  of  his  ancestors  and  aspires 
to  nothing  better.  No  contact  with  Western 
civilization  has  ever  roused  him  from  his 
apathy ;  but  when  his  heart  is  warmed  into 
life  by  gospel  truth  his  mind  awakens,  and  he 
wants  a  clock,  a  book,  a  glass  window,  and  a 
flour-mill.  Almost  every  steamer  that  leaves 
New  -York  for  the  Levant  brings  sewing- 
machines,  watches,  carpenters'  tools,  cabinet 
organs,  or  other  appliances  of  Christian  civil- 
ization In  response  to  the  native  orders  that 
never  would  have  been  sent  but  for  the  Bible; 
and  now  as  you  pick  your  way  along  the  nar- 
row streets,  through  the  noisy  crowd  of  men, 
camels,  donkeys,  and  dogs,'  the  click  of  the 
American  sewing-machine  or  the  sweet  strains 
of  the  American  organ  often  greet  the  ear, 
like  the  voice  of  an  old  friend  from  home." 
For  this   reason   the   missionary  cause  often 


92  Christian  Missions. 

receives  aid  from  men  who  only  saw  that 
as  fast  as  pagan  tribes  were  converted  there 
arose  a  demand  for  soap,  clothing,  axes,  and 
plows.  The  foreign  trade  of  Great  Britain  with 
the  most  distant  ports  and  islands  of  the 
sea,  amounting  to  upward  of  four  billions  of 
dollars  annually,  was  largely  created  by  "  the 
foolishness  of  preaching  "  on  the  part  of  the 
missionary. 

When  Christianity  was  first  taken  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands  there  was  no  commerce 
there  or  intercourse  with  other  nations.  After 
seventy  years  of  labor  the  trade  between 
the  United  States  and  the  islands  amoun- 
ted to  $5,546,000,  and  the  natives  were  buy- 
ing yearly  at  the  single  port  of  San  Fran- 
cisco goods  amounting  to  $500,000  more  than 
the  entire  cost  of  Sandwich  Island  missions 
from  the  beginning.  This  debt,  in  favor  of  the 
Gospel,  commerce  is  now  in  turn  canceling  by 
furnishing  to  the  heathen  an  argument  in  fa- 
vor of  the  rejection  of  their  pagan  system  of 
worship,  more  convincing  than  any  offered  by 
the  missionary,  or  possible  from  any  other 
source. 

To  understand  the  force  of  this  argument 


Commerce  and  Christianity.        93 

we  must  remember  that  greed  of  gain  is  not 
peculiar  to  any  land. 

"Gold!     Gold!     Gold! 
Hard  and  yellow  and  bright  and  cold  ; 
Easy  to  get  and  hard  to  hold," 

is  a  kind  of  international  god  whose  shrines 
are  every-where.  The  almighty  dollar  is  not 
any  more  omnipotent  here  than  the  franc,  the 
rupee,  the  tael,  or  the  shekel  in  other  countries. 
The  half-civilized  races  of  the  earth  seem  to  be 
more  sordid  and  more  grasping  than  elsewhere. 
Even  the  worship  of  their  gods  is  to  a  large  ex- 
tent inspired  by  a  desire  to  so  propitiate  them 
by  prayers  and  sacrifices  that  they  in  turn  may 
grant  to  their  devoted  followers  success  in  their 
worldly  undertakings.  A  traveler,  who  took 
from  the  celebrated  prayer-tree  of  Hiogo, 
Japan,  a  number  of  petititions,  which  had  been 
written  out  and  tied  to  the  branches  for  the 
gods  to  examine  and  grant  at  their  leisure, 
found  them  to  be  not  petitions  for  any  spiritual 
interest,  but  in  every  case  prayers  for  some  tem- 
poral good.  They  worship  the  gods  that  they 
may  be  continued  in  health,  prospered  in  busi- 
ness, and  successful  in  all  their  enterprises. 
We  can  readily  see  the  effect  when  they  come 


94  Christian  Missions. 

to  understand,  as  they  are  beginning  to  do, 
that  no  gain  has  or  will  accrue  to  them  from 
the  worship  of  the  gods,  but  that  those  who 
entirely  neglect  and  even  ridicule  these  deities 
are  richer  and  more  prosperous  than  they.  It 
cannot  much  longer  escape  the  notice  of  the 
most  obtuse  pagan  mind  that  Christian  nations 
are  in  the  ascendency  in  every  thing.  The 
commerce,  even  of  their  own  country,  is  in 
ships  that  fly  foreign  flags.  Out  of  twenty- 
one  million  tons  of  foreign  shipping,  seventeen 
millions  belong  not  only  to  Christian  but  to 
Protestant  powers. 

Goods  made  by  machinery,  and  so  cheaper 
and  better  than  their  hand-made  supply,  are 
pushing  into  all  their  markets  and  they  are 
powerless  to  resist.  Foreign  inventions  are 
brought  to  their  attention  which  astonish  and 
perplex  them.  Their  learned  men  are  forced 
to  admit  that  Western  science  is  far  beyond 
them.  Their  medical  men  are  driven  to  con- 
fess that  they  know  little  in  comparison  with 
the  physicians  of  Christian  lands.  They  find 
themselves  poor  and  other  nations  rich.  As 
they  attempt  to  cope  with  our  armies  or 
navies     they     find     themselves     beaten,    and 


Commerce  and  Christianity.        95 

must  relearn  the  art  of  war  and  provide  new 
weapons. 

They  are  forced  to  notice  that  the  simple  in- 
crease of  wealth  in  England  and  the  United 
States,  during  the  past  twenty  years,  is  many 
times  more  than  they  have  gathered  with  in- 
finite toil  during  thousands  of  years.  The 
hundreds  of  students,  the  attacJies  of  em- 
bassies, and  the  occasional  traveler  from  pagan 
lands  cannot  fail  to  notice  and  report  that  our 
people  have  better  homes,  food,  clothing,  and 
opportunities  for  happiness  than  theirs.  In- 
deed, the  contrast  is  most  striking.  The  log- 
ical and  practical  conclusion  which  the  people 
are  certain  to  draw  from  all  this  is,  that  the 
worship  of  the  gods  is  useless,  since  in  the 
very  particulars  concerning  which  they  call 
most  upon  them  those  who  neglect  the  gods 
entirely  are  better  off. 

The  religious  revolution  in  Japan  has  been 
brought  about  mainly  by  the  object  lesson  of 
the  ascendency  of  Christian  nations  in  all  things 
else,  and  why  not  in  religion?  Jiji  Shimpo 
boldly  advocates  the  adoption  of  Christianity 
by  the  Japanese  *'  on  purely  economic  and  po- 
litical  grounds,    as   the   best  thing  for  Japan 


96  Christian  Missions. 

ethically  and  socially."  A  learned  Brahman  re- 
cently said  to  his  countrymen,  *'  Where  did  the 
English-speaking  people  get  all  their  intelli- 
gence and  energy,  cleverness  and  power?  It 
is  the  Bible  that  gives  it  to  them.  And  now 
they  bring  it  to  us  and  say,  '  This  is  what 
raises  us.  Take  it  and  raise  yourself.'  "  Mr. 
Chalmers,  the  apostle  of  New  Guinea,  declares 
that  he  has  never  met  a  tribe  who  desired  to  have 
teachers  so  that  they  might  be  taught  the 
Gospel,  and  he  does  not  believe  there  ever  has 
been  one.  All  like  the  teachers  at  first  be- 
cause of  the  worldly  gospel  they  bring :  because 
of  the  peace  between  the  tribes,  because  of  the 
increased  supply  of  salt  and  tobacco,  of  beads 
and  tomahawks ;  but  soon  they  learn  differ- 
ently, and  after  a  time  begin  to  appreciate  it 
as  God's  message  of  love  to  man. 

The  same  argument  was  most  effective  in 
turning  our  Saxon  ancestors  away  from  their 
idols.  Bede  tells  us  how  Coifi,  one  of  the  most 
influential  men  among  them,  announced  his 
conversion  to  the  king:  '*  None  of  our  peo- 
ple, Eadwine,  have  worshiped  the  gods  more 
busily  than  I,  yet  there  are  many  more  favored 
and  fortunate.     Were  these  gods  good  for  any 


Commerce  and  Christianity.        97 

thing  they  would  help  their  worshipers."  Then 
leaping  on  horseback,  he  hurled  his  spear  into 
the  sacred  temple  at  Godmanham  and  with 
the  rest  of  the  Witan  embraced  the  religion 
of  the  king. 

It  is  not  a  question  whether  appeals  to  self-in- 
terest are  to  be  commended  or  conversions  that 
commenced  in  such  low  motives  accepted  as 
genuine.  We  only  claim  that  such  arguments 
are  patent  to  the  rudest  intellect  and  have  to 
the  ignorant  peculiar  power.  Merivale  says  of 
the  early  progress  of  Christianity  :  ''Among 
the  multitudes  there  was  probably  after  all  no 
argument  so  effective,  no  testimony  to  the  di- 
vine authority  of  the  Gospel  so  convincing,  as 
that  from  the  temporal  success  with  which 
Christianity  was  eventually  crowned.  The 
great  inert  mass  of  the  thoughtless,  the  gross- 
minded,  and  the  carnal,  upon  whom  no  legiti- 
mate argument  could  make  any  impression, 
were  startled,  arrested,  and  convinced  by  the 
last  overruling  argument  of  success." 

This  argument  is  now  telling  with  unusual 
power  against  pagan  gods  and  superstitions  in 
all  quarters  of  the  globe.  The  steamers  that 
ascend  the  Nile,  the  Yang-tsze-Kiang,  and  the 


98  Christian  Missions. 

Euphrates,  the  cars  that  thunder  back  and  forth 
through  the  heart  of  India,  Japan,  along  the 
Nile  valley,  and  about  the  capital  of  the  Chi- 
nese Empire,  are  all  missionaries.  Every  bale 
or  goods,  every  clock,  cabinet  organ,  sewing- 
machine,  plow,  carpenters'  tool,  each  separate 
article  of  each  ship  load  of  goods  sent  abroad, 
has  for  the  follower  of  false  religions  a  message 
concerning  the  impotency  of  his  gods.  The 
books  translated  into  Eastern  languages,  espe- 
cially concerning  geography,  geology,  astron- 
omy, chemistry,  medicine,  and  the  industrial 
arts,  are  silent  witnesses  of  the  helplessness  or 
perfidy  of  the  gods  who  could  allow  their  de- 
voted followers  to  be  ignorant  of  these  things. 

Every  flag  of  a  Christian  nation  reminds 
them  how  superior  the  God  of  the  Christians 
is  to  their  deities,  since  he  has  made  his  wor- 
shipers masters  on  sea  and  land.  The  great 
manufacturing  centers  of  the  world  are  thus 
the  head-quarters  of  the  greatest  missionary 
movement  of  the  age.  The  deep-laid  plans  of 
commerce  for  the  extension  of  trade  are  the 
deeper  plans  of  God  for  the  overthrow  of 
idolatry. 

The  prosperity  of  Christian  nations,  while  it 


Commerce  and  Christianity.        99 

amounts  to  a  powerful  appeal  in  favor  of 
Christianity,  also  indicates  the  wisdom  of  the 
missionary  in  keeping  his  own  dress  and  manner 
of  living.  The  very  fact  that  he  is  a  foreigner, 
and  comes,  not  only  in  the  name  of  Christian- 
ity, which  his  hearers  do  not  appreciate  at 
once,  but  of  Christian  civilization  and  progress, 
which  they  do,  gives  him  an  immense  advan- 
tage, which  increases  in  proportion  to  the  intel- 
ligence of  his  hearers  and  which  he  cannot  af- 
ford to  throw  away. 


loo  Christian  Missions. 


VIII. 

THE   HUMANITARIAN   VIEW. 

Homo  homini  ignoto  lupus  est. 

An  English  government  official  of  India,  in 
explaining  his  position  as  chairman  of  a  mis- 
sionary meeting  when  not  a  professed  Chris- 
tian, said  :  ^'  In  order  to  have  a  lively  interest 
in  Christian  missions  it  is  not  necessary  that 
one  should  be  a  Christian.  It  is  only  necessary 
that  he  should  be  a  lover  of  his  kind."  Can 
a  valid  claim  be  made  for  Christian  missions 
on  the  ground  of  philanthropy  alone  ?  Is 
there  that  in  the  condition  of  society  in  non- 
Christian  lands  to  justify  an  appeal  to  the 
humanity  and  pity  of  the  world?  "Yes," 
and  "  no,"  are  answers  given  to  these  ques- 
tions. The  obscurity  which  seems  to  exist  is 
only  because  attention  is  fixed  on  ethnic  re- 
ligions themselves,  and  their  adaptation  or  fail- 
ure to  satisfy  the  soul  wants  of  their  followers, 
rather  than  on  the  condition  of  pagan  society. 

On   one   side,  the  revolting  tenets  and  gro- 


The  Humanitarian  View.         ioi 

tesque  characters  ascribed  to  the  gods  of  pa- 
ganism are  accepted  as  conclusive  proof  that 
these  reHgions  are  utterly  unsatisfactory.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  replied  that,  when  inter- 
rogated, the  heathen  declare  that  they  are 
quite  satisfied ;  that  they  still  worship  on  from 
age  to  age,  resisting  every  attempt  to  turn  at- 
tention to  a  better  faith,  and  even  bestow  sin- 
cere and  well-meant  pity  on  the  followers  of 
other  religions.  Besides,  it  is  added,  *'  who 
has  a  perfect  creed,  or  adequate  conceptions 
of  the  deity?  They  may  be  a  little  farther  off 
than  we,  but  we  have  all  only  approximations 
to  the  truth." 

While  men  may  cavil  as  to  the  extent  to 
which  ethnic  religions  profit  the  souls  of  their 
followers  or  brighten  their  hereafter,  there  can 
be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  they  have  failed  to 
materially  improve  their  bodily  surroundings 
or  mitigate  the  woes  of  the  life  that  now  is. 
"  The  same  stars  rise  and  set  upon  this  globe 
that  rose  upon  the  plains  of  Shinar  or  along 
the  Egyptian  Nile ;  and  the  same  sorrows  rise 
and  set  in  every  age.  All  that  sickness  can 
do,  all  that  disappointment  can  effect,  all  that 
blighted  love,  disappointed  ambition,  thwarted 


102  Christian  Missions. 

hope  ever  did,  they  do  still.  Not  a  tear  is 
wrung  from  eyes  now  that  for  the  same  rea- 
son has  not  been  wept  over  and  over  again  in 
long  succession  since  the  hour  that  the  fated 
pair  stepped  from  Paradise  and  gave  their  pos- 
terity to  a  world  of  sorrow  and  suffering." 

It  is  the  office  of  religion,  not  only  to  peo- 
ple heaven,  but  to  mitigate  the  sorrows  of 
earth  and  to  make  lighter  the  burdens  which 
humanity  must  carry.  That  Christianity  is 
actually  doing  this  work  the  multiplied  chari- 
ties that  are  engaged  in  organized  effort  for 
the  relief  of  all  forms  of  suffering,  the  hos- 
pitals, orphanages,  asylums,  refuges,  homes, 
fitly  called  *'  God's  hotels,"  that  lift  their  no- 
ble fronts  in  every  city,  are  abundant  proof. 
That  charity 

"  Meek  and  lowly,  pure  and  holy, 
Chief  among  the  blessed  three," 

is  in  the  land,  witness  Chicago,  Memphis, 
Jacksonville,  Charleston,  and  Johnstown.  In 
all  this  we  find,  not  difference,  but  contrast,  as 
we  cross  the  border-land  of  Christianity  and 
look  in  on  the  society  of  pagan  lands. 

Charity  is  indeed  found  in  pagan  lands,  but 
it  is  arbitrary  and  whimsical ;  endowing  a  hos- 


The  Humanitarian  View.         103 

pital,  it   may  be,  for  cows  or  monkeys  while 
men  and  women  starve  and  die  in  the  streets. 
It  is    not  surprising    to  find   disease   in   all   its 
forms  at  work  in  the  dense  population  of  the 
Old    World.     Such    is    the    case    in  the    best 
Christian  communities  in  our  own  land.     The 
difference  is,  that  here   the  healing  arts  of  one 
of  the  noblest   professions,  the  comforts  that 
are  furnished  the  sick-room,  the  kind  and  sym- 
pathetic attention  which  Christian  society  de- 
mands  shall  be  given   to  even   the  sick   poor 
and  the   stranger,  and  the  comforts  of  an  in- 
telligent faith  in  the  event  of  death— these  les- 
sen, as  far  as  may  be,  the  pains  of  sickness  and 
extract  the  sting  from  death. 

If  we  would  realize  how  different  all  this  is 
in  non-Christian  countries  we  must  remember 
that,  as  a  rule,  no  attention  is  paid  to  sanitary 
measures,  even  in  crowded  cities.  Poverty 
deprives  of  comforts  which  are  necessary  for 
the  prevention  of,  or  restoration  from,  sickness. 
Foolish  superstitions  impose  unnecessary  pains 
on  the  sick  and  deprive  some  of  the  care  which 
ordinary  humanity  would  give,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  stranger,  the  widow,  or  one  who  has 
lost  caste.     Worst  of  all,  a  rational  science  of 


104  Christian  Missions. 

medicine  is  unknown  throughout  the  East. 
Rude  schools  of  rational  practitioners  with  a 
limited  pharmacopoeia  of  simple  herbs  may 
sometimes  be  found,  but  far  more  credit  is 
given  to  charms,  witchcraft,  and  whimsical  and 
absurd  methods,  such  as  sucking  and  blowing 
on  the  diseased  organ,  accompanied  with 
chants,  or  the  pretended  extraction  of  splint- 
ers of  wood,  pebbles,  and  bits  of  cloth,  accom- 
panied by  magical  signs. 

This  is  even  true,  to  a  large  extent,  of  that 
part  of  the  East  which  was  the  cradle  of  med- 
ical science,  where  Avicenna  wrote  his  treatise 
on  pathology  and  materia  inedica  which  is  said 
to  be  the  basis  of  practice  in  Turkey  to-day. 
But  if  the  basis,  it  is  much  like  the  basis  of  the 
Washington  monument — out  of  sight ! 

An  Arab  doctor  has  been  known  to  write 
out  a  sentence  from  the  Koran,  directing  the 
sufferer,  after  steeping  the  bit  of  paper  in 
water,  to  drink  the  draught.  A  physician  of 
the  Levant  recommended  the  trachea  of  a 
wolf  hung  from  the  neck  of  the  patient  as  a 
cure  for  mumps,  and  the  skin  of  the  flying- 
squirrel  held  in  the  hand  to  make  parturition 
easy  !     The  most   common   theory  of  disease 


The  Humanitarian  View.         105 

is  that  it  is  caused  by  disease  demons,  hence 
the  more  frequent  resort  to  the  priest  than  to 
the  doctor.  This  explains  the  method  often 
practiced  to  quarantine  against  small-pox  and 
cholera  by  surrounding  the  house  with  brush- 
wood, ditches,  and  vessels  of  stinking  oil,  so 
as  to  barricade  the  way  of  the  disease  spirit. 

For  various  ulcers,  the  Chinese  receipt  is, 
''  Serpents,  pulverized,  one  ounce ;  wasps  and 
their  nests,  one-half  ounce  ;  centipedes,  three 
ounces  ;  scorpions,  six  ounces ;  toads,  ten 
ounces.  Grind  thoroughly,  mix  with  honey, 
and  make  into  pills." 

In  the  year  1878,  when  China  was  suffering 
from  the  cholera,  benevolent  citizens  printed 
and  circulated  the  following  remedy:  "  Rub 
the  spine  with  an  earthen  spoon  that  has  been 
soaked  in  tea-oil,  till  small  black  spots  appear; 
then  puncture  these  with  a  needle  down  to 
the  bone.  The  poisonous  blood  will  thus  be 
removed.  Dip  your  hands  in  cold  water  and 
rub  the  arms  in  front  of  each  elbow,  also  the 
popliteal  spaces,  till  they  are  black,  then  apply 
a  burning  lamp-wick.  Give  the  following  to 
an  adult  :  One  cup  of  salt  heated  in  an  iron 
spoon  over  a  slow  fire  and  mixed  with  one  cup 


io6  Christian  Missions. 

of  ginger  juice  and  an  equal  amount  of  boy's 
urine  and  cold  water." 

Surgery  in  its  simplest  forms  is  seldom  prac- 
ticed by  the  heathen  doctor,  notwithstanding 
the  multitudes  that  suffer  or  die  for  lack  of  a 
few  strokes  of  the  lancet.  The  absence  of 
precautions  for  the  prevention  of  disease  and 
the  presence  of  such  remedies  for  its  cure  give 
all  the  maladies  to  which  flesh  is  heir  a  chance 
to  meet  and  hold  high  carnival  among  the 
millions  of  paganism. 

Not  only  is  the  death  rate  high,  but  the  road 
to  death  is  made  very  rough  though  travel- 
worn.  If  in  Christian  countries  the  miseries 
of  the  sick  poor  have  touched  Christian  hearts 
with  pity,  and  led  to  the  erection  of  hospitals 
for  their  care,  should  not  the  woes  of  the  blind, 
fever-stricken,  leprous-smitten,  poverty-crushed 
millions  who  happen  to  have  been  born  outside 
of  the  pale  of  Christianity  awaken  some  com- 
passion ?  If  when  Jacksonville  was  smitten  by 
the  yellow  fever  and  Johnstown  by  the  flood 
the  practical  sympathy  of  the  entire  country 
was  awakened,  shall  we  be  entirely  unconcerned 
about  the  fate  of  cities  over  which  the  fever 
continually  hovers,  and  where  the  inhabitants 


The  Humanitarian  View.         107 

at   all   seasons   "are    carried   away  as  with   a 
flood?" 

Bishop  Foster  adds,  "The  conspicuous 
feature  of  heathenism  is  poverty.  You  have 
never  seen  poverty.  It  is  a  word  the  mean- 
ing of  which  you  do  not  know.  What  you 
call  poverty  is  wealth,  luxury." 

J.  Thompson,  F.R.G.S.,  and  a  trained  trav- 
eler, says  :  "  The  picture,  at  best,  is  a  sad  one, 
and  though  a  ray  of  sunlight  may  brighten  it 
here  and  there,  yet,  after  all,  the  darkness  that 
broods  over  the  land  becomes  but  the  more 
palpable  under  the  struggling,  fitful  light. 
Poverty  and  ignorance  we  have  among  us  in 
England,  but  no  poverty  so  wretched,  no 
ignorance  so  intense  as  is  found  among  the 
millions  of  China." 

The  poverty  arises,  in  part,  from  the  over- 
crowded condition  of  those  old  lands.  It  is 
in  part  to  be  attributed  to  the  enormous  taxes 
levied  on  the  people,  amounting  sometimes 
to  two  thirds  the  entire  income.  Rev.  H.  V. 
Noyes,  long  resident  in  China,  gives  a  carefully 
prepared  table  of  statistics  concerning  the  cost 
of  idolatrous  worship  in  a  single  province, 
by   which   it    appears   that   the    expenditures 


io8  Christian  Missions. 

range  from  one  fifth  to  two  fifths  of  the  income 
of  the  people.  In  some  countries  it  is  even 
greater  than  this. 

These  burdens  which  the  people  have  long 
borne,  taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that 
the  wages  paid  for  labor  and  the  gains  of  trade 
are  less  in  pagan  lands  than  anywhere  else,  ac- 
count for  the  fact  that  the  ordinary  family 
in  non-Christian  lands  is  more  miserably 
housed,  has  poorer  clothes,  more  wretched 
food,  and  scantier  comforts  than  the  people 
elsewhere.  Nor  is  poverty  his  only  or  heav- 
iest burden.  He  is  every-where,  save  where 
Christian  arms  have  secured  his  emancipation, 
a  political  slave  to  a  government  by  absolute 
monarchy  which  allows  him  not  a  single 
right  which  government  is  bound  to  respect. 
Among  the  sayings  of  Confucius  is  one  called 
forth  by  his  finding  a  woman  wailing  beside 
a  grave  on  the  side  of  the  T'ae  Mountain. 
One  of  his  disciples  inquiring  the  cause  of  her 
great  sorrow,  she  replied,  ''  My  husband's  fa- 
ther was  killed  here  by  a  tiger  and  my  hus- 
band also,  and  now  my  son  has  met  the  same 
fate."  Confucius  asked  her  why  she  did  not 
remove  from  so  dangerous  a  locality,  and  when 


The  Humanitarian  View.         109 

she  replied,  "  There  is  here  no  oppressive 
government,"  he  turned  to  his  disciples  with 
the  remark,  "  My  children,  remember  this  :  op- 
pressive government  is  fiercer  than  a  tiger." 
The  heathen  man  has  been  subject  to  this 
tiger  government  time  out  of  mind.  He  has 
grown  patient  and  stolid  attributing  his  condi- 
tion  to  Kismet  (fate),  against  which  it  is  vain 
to  fight. 

As  usual,  the  heaviest  part  of  these  burdens 
falls  on  the  weakest  shoulders.  The  women 
and  girls  of  the  East  have  had  many  eloquent 
pleaders,  but  none  have  risen  to  the  merit 
and  magnitude  of  the  theme.  The  traveler 
is  surprised  by  their  absence  from  the  public 
or  social  gathering,  or  even  from  the  home 
which  he  may  choose  to  enter.  He  cannot  at 
once  realize  that  she  is  shut  out  from  the  one, 
and  that  at  his  approach  she  fled  to  the  inner 
apartment  in  the  other.  What  goes  on  in  the 
pagan  home  behind  the  latticed  work,  which 
practically  bounds  the  heathen  woman's  world, 
is  hidden. 

We  know  that  she  is  grossly  ignorant,  it  be- 
ing a  sin  to  even  teach  her  to  read,  and  that 
with  her  superstition   has  a  clear  field.     It  is 


no  Christian  Missions. 

painfully  true  that  the  chivalric  regard  for 
woman  so  characteristic  of  Anglo-Saxon  civil- 
ization is  entirely  wanting,  that  her  birth  was 
a  disappointment  to  her  parents,  her  betrothal 
without  her  consent,  her  marriage  a  legal 
transfer  to  a  master  who  would  have  complete 
power  over  her ;  her  soul  even  without  future 
existence  save  as  an  appendix  to  a  man.  As 
a  widow  she  is  regarded  as  accursed  of  the 
gods,  and  very  properly  doomed  to  the  most 
menial  services,  and  as  a  childless  wife  can  ex- 
pect only  wretchedness  and  neglect.  Yet  she 
is  not  dissatisfied,  nor  bewails  her  lot.  Could 
she  know  how  the  women  of  other  lands  are 
educated  and  have  a  part  in  the  work  of 
society  she  would  doubtless  bestow  on  them 
sincere  pity,  but  this  only  shows  the  clearer 
her  true  state. 

If  the  condition  of  five  hundred  million 
heathen  women  and  girls  does  not  constitute 
a  valid  plaint  to  the  humane  spirit  which  char- 
acterizes the  nineteenth  century,  the  world 
may  be  vainly  appealed  to  for  any  thing  that 
does.  Nor  is  this  all.  Cyrus-  Hamlin  presents 
a  plea  for  the  women  of  Turkey  on  account  of 
polygamy  and  concubinage,  which  he   asserts 


The  Humanitarian  View.         hi 

are  prevalent  through  the  Levant.  A  Hindu 
woman,  in  the  newspapers  of  Bombay,  pleads 
with  her  countrymen  to  deliver  the  widows  of 
her  land  from  the  terrible  disabilities  put  upon 
them.  Frank  Leslie  s  Illustrated  Weekly  cites 
the  slave-trade  of  Africa  as  a  reason  for  the 
formation  of  an  Anglo-American  alliance  to 
deliver  that  country  from  a  scourge  which,  it 
asserts,  was  never  so  prevalent  as  now.  Still 
others  point  to  the  famines  which  devastated 
Persia  in  1871-1880,  Turkey  in  1874  and  1884, 
and  India  and  China  often,  as  valid  reasons  for 
extending  help  of  all  kinds  to  those  afflicted 
regions. 

Few  would  care  to  take  the  ground  that 
only  the  sorrows  of  our  own  or  the  English- 
speaking  race  could  be  expected  to  call  forth 
our  compassion,  yet  that  is  the  only  plea  that 
can  be  urged  for  silence  or  inaction.  The  peo- 
ple of  pagan  lands  have  been  compared  to  the 
man  who  fell  among  thieves  at  Jericho,  who 
wounded  him  and  left  him  half  dead.  In  such 
a  case,  to  stretch  forth  no  hand  to  help  is  to 
deserve  a  place  with  the  priest  and  Levite  in 
the  pillory  of  the  tenth  chapter  of  Luke's 
gospel,  or  with  Skipper  Ireson, 


112  Christian  Missions. 

"  Who  sailed  away 
From  a  leaking  ship  in  Chaleur  Bay; 
Sailed  away  from  a  sinking  wreck 
With  his  own  town's-people  on  her  deck." 

The  United  States  may  profitably  heed  the 
words  of  Professor  Henry  Drummond  when 
he  says  of  the  United  States:  "  The  world  will 
be  bewildered  and  disappointed  if  she  sepa- 
rates herself  from  the  rest  of  mankind  in  fac- 
ing those  great  wrongs  of  humanity  from 
which  seas  cannot  divide  her  and  which  her 
poorer  brethren  in  every  part  of  Europe  are 
giving  themselves  to  relieve.  America  does 
well  in  refusing  the  entanglements  of  Eu- 
ropean politics.  Let  her  be  careful  lest  she 
isolate  herself  from  its  humanities." 

It  has  not  been  forgotten  that  the  greatest 
charity,  after  all,  is  to  the  souls  of  men.  This 
has  been  entirely  ignored  that  attention  might 
be  called  to  matters  of  lesser  moment  but 
about  which  there  could  be  no  dispute. 

The  good  things  which,  because  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  Western  world  enjoys,  the  mission- 
ary takes  and  freely  shares  with  his  Oriental 
brother.  He  studies  medicine  and  practices 
and  teaches  it  there,  has  gained  and  earned  the 
title,  ''the  shield  of  woman,"  has  demanded 


The  Humanitarian  View.         113 

and  received  protection  for  at  least  his  own 
converts  from  oppressive  legislation,  and  re- 
moved the  costly  and  heavy  burdens  of  idola- 
trous worship  from  their  shoulders.  It  was  a 
sight  of  these  things  on  pagan  soil  that  led 
Professor  Charles  Darwin  to  declare  that  he 
was  heartily  in  favor  of  Christian  missions, 
*' on  the  ground  of  charity  and  humanity," 
and  which  led  him  to  write  to  the  officers  of  a 
missionary  society,  "  I  shall  feel  proud  if  your 
committee  think  fit  to  elect  me  an  honorary 
member  of  your  society." 


114  Christian  Missions. 


IX. 

STATESMANSHIP  AND  MISSIONS. 
Fiat  justitia  mat  coelum. 

When  the  disciples  were  contemplating  the 
vast  work  that  had  been  set  before  them  by  the 
Master,  and  were  looking  around  for  means  on 
which  to  depend,  Peter  said,  ''  Lord,  here  are 
two  swords,"  and  the  Master  answered,  ''  It  is 
enough."  When  afterward  he  attempted  to 
use  one  of  them  he  was  bidden  to  put  it  up 
into  its  sheath.  They  were  forewarned  that,  so 
far  from  depending  on  the  civil  power,  they 
would  more  frequently  appear  before  kings  and 
magistrates  for  condemnation  than  otherwise, 
and  that,  "  not  many  wise  men  after  the  flesh, 
not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble,"  would  be 
called  or  numbered  among  the  followers  of  the 
Nazarene.  That  this  should  be  the  case  in  the 
early  stages  of  Christianity  in  any  land  is  quite 
what  we  would  expect.  The  lust  of  power  and 
the  deceitfulness  of  riches  would  naturally 
make  the  rulers,  and  those  high  in  station,  the 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      115 

last  to  accept  the  truth.     Why  this  should  be 
the    case    where    Christianity    has    long    been 
dominant,  why  politicians  and  statesmen  should 
there  be,  as  a  rule,  so  far  behind  the  masses  of 
the    people  in   practical  acceptance   of  Chris- 
tianity,   is    not    so    apparent.     Why  should  a 
Christian    people    seeking  Christian    ends    by 
Christian  means  be  delayed  or  thwarted  by  the 
tardy  justice  or  manifest  wrong  of  those  whom 
the  people  have  put  forward  to  represent  them 
in  the  chief  councils  of  the  nation  ?    This  would 
seem  to  be  the  case,  whichever  of  two  opposing 
views    concerning  the   nature   of  government 
was  in  mind.     If  we  accept  the  view  of  Mr. 
Mumford,  then  the  nation  will  be  regarded  as 
a  moral  personality.     Being  a  personality,  and 
so  having  a  character  and  presumably  a  con- 
science, we  must  agree  with  Milton,  who  long 
ago  wrote:  "A  nation  ought  to  be  one  huge 
Christian    personage,    one    mighty  growth  or 
stature  of  an  honest  man  as  big  and  compact 
in  virtue  as  in  body:  for  look  what  the  ground 
and  causes  of  happiness  are  to  one  man,  the 
same  ye  shall  find  them  in  the  whole  State." 

This  seems  to  have  been  the  view   of  the 
Emperor  William  II.  of  Germany,  when,  in  No- 


ii6  Christian  Missions. 

vember,  1888,  he  said,  ''The  manifestation  of 
love  to  one's  neighbor  is  the  duty  of  the  State  as 
a  public  community."  If,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
Mr.  Spear  contends,  the  nation  is  no  such 
moral  personahty,  but  only  an  aggregation  of 
atoms  each  one  of  which  has  a  conscience  and 
character,  then  those  who  represent  those 
atoms  in  laws  and  public  policy  should  shape 
the  same  so  as  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  pre- 
vailing sentiment."  "  It  is  a  most  dangerous 
and  destructive  delusion,"  said  Theodore  Fre- 
linghuysen  in  the  United  States  Senate,  May 
8,  1830,  **  to  suppose  that  while  as  individuals 
and  families  we  are  bound  to  respect  the 
principles  of  religion,  yet  when  we  assume  the 
character  of  States  and  nations  these  cease  to 
exert  any  legitimate  influence."  Whatever 
theory  we  may  adopt,  the  people  have  a  right 
to  expect  that  dearly  cherished  plans,  which 
they  individually  seek  to  carry  out,  shall  not 
be  antagonized  by  their  own  action  in  an 
associate  capacity.  The  bearing  of  this  on  the 
cause  of  Christian  missions  will  appear  when 
we  consider  how  wide-spread  the  interest  in 
this  cause  is  among  the  best  people  of  the  land. 
We  are   indebted   to  Dr.   Dorchester  for   the 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      117 

following  summary  of  the  churches,  ministers, 
and  communicants  of  the  various  Protestant 
denominations  of  the  United  States  : 

Churches.  Ministers.  Communicants. 

Advent  Bodies 3,492  i,32i  134.577 

Baptist  Bodies 45. 112  30,929  4,051.360 

Lutheran  Bodies 7,6to  4.512  1,036,970 

Methodist  Bodies 47.470  30,082  4,801 ,340 

Presbyterian  Bodies 15,104  11,428  1,476,9^2 

Unclassified  Bodies 12,689  12,096  1,374.163 

Aggregate I3I.477     90,368     13,877,422 

ROMAN    CATHOLIC. 

Sadrier's  Hoffman's 

Year-Book.      Year-Book. 

Priests 7,996  8,118 

Churches 7,424  7.353 

Chapels  and  stations 3.133  2,770 

Population 7.855,294  8,157.676 

POPULATIONS. 

Total  "  New-Churchmen  " 10,178 

Universalist,  41.474  families  (5  each) 207,370 

Unitarian,  no  means  of  estimating 

Roman  Catholic  (Sadlier's  estimate) 7,855,294 

"Evangelical"  Bodies,  three  and  a  half  times 

as  many  as  the  enrolled  members 48,570,977 

This  shows  an  average  of  about  one  member 
in  4.5  inhabitants,  on  an  estimated  population 
for  1888  of  62,300,000.  The  evangelical  popu- 
lation is  JJ  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population 


ii8  Christian  Missions. 

of  the  United  States.     The  Roman   Catholic 
population  is  1 1  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

These  twenty  million  and  more  of  actual 
members  are  identified  with  the  cause  of 
missions.  They  manifest  their  interest  by 
giving  each  year  to  the  cause  the  sum  of  three 
million  dollars.  Some  part  of  this  sum  is  col- 
lected by  the  children,  some  of  it  represents 
the  widow's  mite,  and  much  of  it  was  given 
with  no  small  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the 
donors.  A  still  more  valuable  gift,  and  testi- 
monial as  well  to  the  interest  had  in  this  cause, 
is  some  thousands  of  the  choice  men  and 
women,  who  at  home  or  in  foreign  lands  are 
engaged  in  the  work  of  missions.  The  theme 
calls  forth  great  conventions  of  the  people  and 
is  the  inspiration  of  no  little  effort,  song,  and 
prayer.  The  interest  which  so  large  a  part  of 
the  people  take  in  this  cause  is  certainly  valid 
ground  for  the  claim  that  nothing  shall  be 
done  to  antagonize  this  work  unless  in  extreme 
political  emergency,  especially  that  no  injustice 
shall  be  practiced  toward  those  nations  or 
wards  of  our  own  nation  that  the  people  are 
endeavoring  to  impress  with  the  precepts  of 
Christianity.      Further  than  this,  Christianity 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      119 

cannot,  in  justice,  ask  the  government  to  go, 
and  does  not  wish  to.  It  rests  its  claim  on  the 
same  ground  taken  by  the  fishermen  of  the 
New  England  coast,  who,  in  view  of  the  im- 
portance of  that  interest  to  so  large  a  popula- 
tion, ask  that  no  action  shall  be  taken  in  the 
treaty  on  the  fishery  question  that  shall  jeopar- 
dize their  interest.  Likewise,  the  wine-growers 
of  the  Pacific  Slope,  the  wool-men  of  the  North- 
west, the  farmers  of  the  Middle  States  and  the 
manufacturers  of  the  East,  set  forth  to  Congress 
the  wide-spread  interest  in  these  various  indus- 
tries as  a  reason  for  legislation  for  or  against 
increased  tariff.  During  the  discussion  of  the 
Edmunds  Bill  in  the  Senate,  a  company  of 
merchants  of  New  York  telegraphed,  "  Utah 
buys  twenty  million  dollars  of  goods  a  year — 
hands  off."  In  like  manner,  twenty  million 
actual  church  members  who  consult  together, 
pray  and  sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  missions, 
respectfully  urge  that  fact  as  a  reason  for  care 
in  all  government  action  touching  that  interest. 
But  v/hat  has  been  the  record  at  this  point  ? 
From  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country  the 
churches  have  been  at  work  to  evangelize  the 
native  Indian  tribes.     Brainard  and  Eliot  were 


I20  Christian  Missions. 

conspicuous  examples  among  the  early  workers, 
but  were  soon  surpassed  by  the  Moravians,  and 
even  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts 
undertook,  at  one  time,  the  work.  For  more 
than  two  hundred  years  it  has  been  prosecuted 
by  the  most  self-denying  men  of  all  denomina- 
tions, including  Roman  Catholics  and  Quakers. 
It  has  ended  in  failure.  Some  tribes  have 
indeed  been  civilized  and  Christianized,  but  the 
great  bulk  of  the  Indian  nation  is  morally,  and 
every  other  way,  worse  off  than  when  the 
Pilgrims  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

This  is  not,  as  has  sometimes  been  supposed, 
because  they  are  dying  off.  Three  hundred 
thousand,  the  present  number,  is  supposed  to 
be  as  many  as  tlie  tribes  ever  numbered.  It 
has  not  been  because  the  Indian  cannot  stand 
civilization.  Where  he  has  had  a  chance,  as  at 
Hampton  and  Carlisle,  and  some  of  the  reser- 
vations, he  has  shown  that,  whatever  else  has 
made  against  his  welfare,  it  is  not  civilization. 

The  assertion  of  Catlin  concerning  the  Indian 
character  has  never  been  disproved.  "  I  fear- 
lessly assert,"  he  says,  *'  to  the  world,  and  I 
defy  contradiction,  that  the  North  American 
Indian  is  every-where   in   his   native   state  a 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      121 

highly  moral  and  religious  being,  endowed  by 
his  Maker  with  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  some 
great  Author  of  his  being  and  the  universe,  in 
dread  of  whose  displeasure  he  continually  lives, 
with  the  apprehension  before  him  of  a  future 
state,  when  he  expects  to  be  rewarded  or  pun- 
ished according  to  the  merits  he  has  gained  or 
forfeited  in  this  world." 

Bishop  Whipple  of  Minnesota,  who  formed 
his  opinions  from  residence  among  them,  says 
"  The  North  American  Indian  is  the  noblest 
type  of  a  heathen  man  on  the  earth.  He 
recognizes  a  great  Spirit.  He  believes  in  im- 
mortality ;  he  has  a  quick  intellect ;  he  is  a  clear 
thinker.  He  is  brave  and  fearless  and,  until 
betrayed,  he  is  true  to  his  plighted  faith  ;  he 
has  a  passionate  love  for  his  children  and 
counts  it  joy  to  die  for  his  people." 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  testimony  to 
the  same  end  from  Lewis  and  Clarke,  Governor 
Stephens,  Colonels  Steptoe,  Boone,  and  Brent 
and  General  Harney,  nor  is  their  testimony 
invalidated  by  the  fact  that  the  noble  red  man 
is  now  a  man  of  many  vices  and  few  virtues. 
The  principal,  though  of  course  not  the  only, 
reason  why  attempts  to  evangelize  the   Indian 


122  Christian  Missions. 

tribes  have  failed,  has  been  the  treatment  which 
they  have  received  from  the  United  States 
government.  Time  and  again  territory  has 
been  granted  them,  by  solemn  treaty,  where 
they  could  dwell  in  peace  and  have  a  chance 
to  profit  by  the  instructions  of  the  Christian 
teachers  whom  they  were  generally  willing  to 
receive ;  but  as  often  some  pretext  has  been 
found  for  setting  aside  the  treaty,  robbing 
them  of  their  lands,  and  bidding  them,  like  the 
crowds  of  a  city,  to  ''  move  on." 

Deprived  of  means  of  support,  stung  with  a 
sense  of  their  wrongs,  and  homeless,  no  wonder 
they  have  scorned  instruction  from  the  pale- 
face teachers.  Bishop  Whipple  says  of  the 
entire  history  of  the  transactions  of  our  gov- 
ernment with  the  Indians,  which  Helent  Hunt 
Jackson  calls  '*  A  Century  of  Dishonor :  "  ''  The 
sad  revelation  of  broken  faith,  of  violated  treat- 
ise, and  of  inhuman  deeds  of  violence  will 
bring  a  blush  of  shame  to  the  cheeks  of  those 
who  love  their  country.  They  will  wonder 
how  our  rulers  have  dared  to  so  trifle  with 
justice  and  to  provoke  the  anger  of  God." 

The  sad  plight  in  which  the  law  left  the 
Indian  after  robbing  him  of  his  lands  enlisted 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.       123 

the  Interest  of  Governor  Horatio  Seymour, 
who  said:  "Every  human  being  born  upon 
this  continent,  or  who  comes  here  from  any 
quarter  of  the  world,  whether  savage  or  civil- 
ized, can  go  to  our  courts  for  protection  ex- 
cept those  who  belong  to  the  tribes  who  once 
owned  the  country.  The  cannibal  from  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  worst  criminals  from 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  can  appeal  to  the 
law  and  courts  for  their  rights  of  person  or 
property,  all  save  our  native  Indians,  who 
above  all  should  be  protected  from  wrong." 
The  impression  which  all  this  has  made  on  the 
Indians  was  expressed  by  Red  Cloud,  when, 
blddinfT  adieu  to  friends  he  had  visited  at  the 
Black  Hills,  he  said:  "  Farewell;  if  I  do  not 
meet  you  again  on  earth,  I  will  beyond  the 
grave,  in  a  land  where  white  men  cease  to  be 
liars." 

"  Our  great  trouble,"  says  Julius  H.  Seelye, 
of  Amherst,  <*  is  that  we  have  sought  to  exact 
justice  from  the  Indian  while  exhibiting  no 
justice  to  him.."  "The  Indian  bureau  is  often 
unable  to  fulfill  the  treaties,"  writes  another, 
"  because  Congress  has  failed  to  make  appro- 
priations."   These  explanations,  however  good 


124  Christian  Missions. 

fail  to  reach  the  Indian,  who  only  knows  that 
he  has  been  treated  in  bad  faith  and  that 
hunger  knows  no  law.  As  a  fugitive  from  the 
reservation  he  is  hunted  down  by  the  cavalry, 
but  not  every  general  commanding  such  an 
expedition  has  the  candor  of  General  Crook, 
who,  about  to  set  out  on  one  of  these  cam- 
paigns with  which  the  country  is  so  familiar, 
said  to  a  friend,  who  remarked  ''  it  is  hard  to 
go  on  such  a  campaign,"  ''  Yes,  but  the  hardest  ^. 
thing  is  to  fight  those  whom  you  know  are  in 
the  right."  ''Your  father  hath  deceived  me 
and  changed  my  wages  ten  times"  was  not 
more  true  of  the  treatment  Jacob  received 
from  Laban,  than  of  the  conduct  of  the  govern- 
ment toward  these  defenseless  wards.  A  policy 
just  and  honorable,  even  to  the  degree  shown 
by  the  Canadian  government  to  the  tribes  of 
the  North-west,  would  have  averted  several 
expensive  wars  and  saved  from  failure  the  best 
intentioned  and  persevering  efforts  to  elevate 
the  red  man.  The  words  of  Latimer,  though 
four  hundred  years  old,  concerning  the  miseries 
of  the  English  populace  and  the  responsibility 
of  the  nobles,  are  applicable  here :  "  My  lords 
of  the  laity  and  clergy,  in  the  name  of  God,  I 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      125 

advise  you  take  heed.  When  the  Lord  of 
hosts  shall  see  the  flock  scattered,  spilt,  and 
lost,  if  he  follow  the  trace  of  the  blood,  it  will 
lead  him  straightway  unto  this  court."  The 
relations  of  the  United  States  government  to 
the  Chinese  furnish  another  example.  The 
interest  which  the  American  Churches  take  in 
the  conversion  of  the  Chinese  is  indicated  by 
the  following  statistics  of  the  various  missions 
there : 

Denomination.  Mission-    Native        Communi- 

aries.       Helpers.  cants. 

American   Board 20  109  816 

Baptist 30  43  i5340 

Protestant   Episcopal 21  20  496 

Presbyterians 102  107  3,788 

Reformed 15  22  844 

Methodist  Episcopal 80  132  3,903 

Southern  Baptist 20  25  776 

Methodist  Episcopal,  South.  34  1 1  286 

Presbyterian,  South 19  5  82 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  all  the  leading 
denominations  of  the  country  are  earnestly 
engaged  in  the  evangelization  of  the  Celestials. 
The  better  classes  of  the  Chinese  have  all 
along  manifested  no  little  disrelish  to  the 
message  of  foreign  teachers,  but  of  late  this 
aversion  is  more  marked.     This  seems  strange 


126  Christian  Missions. 

when  we  remember  that  our  missionaries 
in  that  quarter  in  zeal,  purity  of  life,  and  self- 
sacrifice  are  not  excelled  by  any  class  of  men 
anywhere.  The  primary  reason  why  these  pious 
labors  are  not  producing  the  result  we  might 
expect  is  the  treatment  the  Chinese  have  re- 
ceived from  so-called  Christian  governments. 
As  to  our  own  nation,  it  is  sufficient  to  refer 
to  the  course  of  action  culminating  in  the 
Chinese  Exclusion  Bill.  Up  to  the  year  1880 
a  treaty  existed  between  the  United  States 
and  China  by  which  the  subjects  of  each 
might  visit  or  reside  in  the  country  of  the 
other  with  full  protection.  In  that  year  we 
sent  over  a  commission  to  get  the  Chinese 
government  to  agree  that  we  might  have  the 
privilege  of  limiting  immigration  to  this  coun- 
try, which  was  granted  with  the  understand- 
ing that  it  should  in  no  case  be  altogether 
prohibited. 

Six  months  after  a  bill  passed  both  houses 
of  Congress  suspending  the  coming  of  Chinese 
laborers  to  this  country  for  ten  years,  and  re- 
quiring of  those  already  here,  if  they  desired 
to  leave  for  any  purpose,  first  to  register  at  a 
custom  house  and  take  a  passport  containing 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      127 

an  accurate  description  of  their  persons,  which 
certificate  would  entitle  them  to  return.  So 
far  all  was  according  to  at  least  the  letter  of 
the  treaty.  What  followed  is  well  stated  by 
Senator  Henry  L.  Dawes  in  the  pages  of  the 
Forum  :  ''  But  the  warfare  upon  Chinese  labor- 
ers grew  in  intensity  hour  by  hour.  All  polit- 
ical parties  on  the  Pacific  coast  made  common 
cause  in  waging  it,  and  all  political  parties 
away  from  there  vied  with  each  other  in  urg- 
ing it  on.  Preparatory  to  the  presidential 
campaign  there  was  a  race  among  politicians 
of  the  East  for  the  cup  offered  by  the  voters  on 
the  Pacific  slope  to  the  best  hater  of  these  de- 
spised Celestials. 

''  During  the  late  session  of  Congress  a  treaty 
was  negotiated  at  Washington  by  the  execu- 
tive with  the  Chinese  minister  resident  here 
which  permitted  the  absolute  exclusion  for 
twenty  years  of  all  Chinese  laborers,  whether 
once  resident  or  not,  except  such  poor  fellows 
as  had  left  here  a  wife,  child,  parent,  or  one 
thousand  dollars  of  property,  and  had  also  left 
before  going  away  with  the  collector  of  the 
port  a  minute  description  in  writing  of  these 
various  articles,  and  had  come  back  within  a 


128  Christian  Missions. 

year.  When  this  treaty  was  submitted  to  the 
Senate  for  approval,  that  body,  as  if  anxious 
for  an  opportunity  to  share  in  the  ultimate 
opprobrium  which  must  rest  on  all  this  busi- 
ness, amended  the  text,  giving  the  screw  one 
more  turn. 

''  The  Chinese  minister  acquiesced  with  a  sigh, 
but  the  amendments  required  ratification  in 
China,  which  was  likely  to  consume  too  much 
of  the  valuable  time  which  was  needed  in  the 
race.  Congress,  without  waiting,  passed  an 
act,  dependent  upon  the  ratification  of  this 
treaty,  making  it  '  unlawful  for  any  Chinese 
person,  whether  a  subject  of  China  or  any 
other  power,  to  enter  the  United  States,'  ex- 
cept '  Chinese  officials,  students,  merchants, 
travelers  for  leisure  or  curiosity,'  and  except 
those  who  have  left  behind  them  when  they 
went  away,  as  before  described,  wife,  child, 
parent,  or  property. 

*'  And  all  excepted  persons  were,  before  set- 
ting foot  on  our  soil,  compelled  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  the  most  complicated  system  of 
listing,  description,  certificate,  and  passport 
that  human  ingenuity  could  devise.  In  the 
meantime,    the   home   government,  to    which 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      129 

the  treaty  had  been  sent  back  for  ratification, 
began  to  show  some  signs  of  '  the  spirit  of  a 
man,'  and,  demurring  to  some  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  treaty,  took  time  for  further 
deUberation  and  discussion. 

"  Upon  the  spur  of  a  mere  rumor  that  the 
treaty  had  been  rejected,  Congress,  in  hot 
anger  and  in  hot  haste,  for  there  was  no  time 
to  lose,  and  the  Pacific  slope  had  its  ear  to  the 
ground,  passed,  without  any  reference  to  com- 
mittee, a  law  unqualifiedly  and  absolutely  for- 
bidding any  Chinese  laborer  who  now  is,  or 
shall  hereafter  be,  a  resident  of  the  United 
States,  who  may  leave  the  country,  from  ever 
returning  on  any  conditions  whatever.  Pres- 
ident Cleveland  approved  this  bill,  after  the 
receipt  of  official  information  that  the  treaty 
had  7iot  been  rejected  by  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment, but  that  there  were  points  in  it  which 
they  desired  to  reconsider  with  us.  He  ac- 
companied this  approval,  however,  with  a  spe- 
cial message  giving  good  reasons  why  he 
should  not  have  approved  it  at  all,  and  sug- 
gesting alterations  and  amendments  of  the 
very  bill  which  he  had  just  signed.  This  is  a 
brief  summary  of  our  dealings  by  treaty  and 
9 


130  Christian  Missions. 

legislation  with  the  subject  of  Chinese  immi- 
gration during  a  period  of  twenty  years,  cul- 
minating in  an  absolute  exclusion  from  our 
shores  hereafter  of  all  Chinese  laborers,  both 
those  coming  for  the  first  time  and  those  re- 
turning here,  no  matter  what  relations  of  busi- 
ness or  family  they  have  left  behind  under  a 
treaty  pledge  of  safe  return  and  undisturbed 
residence." 

Senator  Dawes  adds,  *'  It  is  not  the  asser- 
tion of  this  power,  but  the  manner  and  the 
assigned  cause  for  its  assertion,  which  will  be 
likely  to  occasion  criticism.  There  has  been 
nothing  open  or  manly,  either  in  the  negotia- 
tion of  the  treaties  that  conceded  it  or  in  the 
legislation  in  conformity  to,  as  well  as  that 
in  conflict  with,  those  treaties.  There  is  no- 
where in  the  whole  series  an  avowal  of  the 
real  purpose  which  prompted  our  persistent 
zeal." 

July  8,  1889,  Mr.  Chang  Yen  Hoon,  then 
Chinese  minister  to  the  United  States,  wrote 
to  Mr.  Blaine,  referring  to  the  action  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  in  deciding 
"  that  the  act  of  1888  is  in  contravention  of 
the  express  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of  1868  ;  " 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      131 

but  that  as  it  Is  the  exercise  of  the  sovereign 
power  vested  in  Congress  it  must  be  respected 
as  the  supreme  law  of  the  land."  "  You  will 
pardon  me,"  continued  the  minister,  "  if  I 
express  my  amazement  that  such  a  doctrine 
should  be  published  to  the  world  by  the 
august  tribunal  for  whose  members,  my  per- 
sonal acquaintances,  I  entertain  such  profound 
respect.  It  forces  upon  me  the  conviction  that 
in  the  three  years  which  I  have  spent  in 
this  country  I  have  not  been  able  fully  and 
correctly  to  comprehend  the  principles  and 
systems  of  your  great  government.  In  my 
country  we  have  acted  upon  the  conviction 
that  where  two  nations  deliberately  and  sol- 
emnly entered  upon  treaty  stipulations  they 
thereby  formed  a  sacred  compact,  from  which 
they  could  not  be  honorably  discharged  except 
through  friendly  negotiations  and  a  new 
agreement.  I  was,  therefore,  not  prepared 
to  learn,  through  the  medium  of  that  great 
tribunal,  that  there  was  a  way  recognized  in  the 
law  and  practice  of  this  country  whereby  your 
government  could  release  itself  from  treaty 
obligations  without  consultation  with,  or  the 
consent  of,  the   other  party  to  what  we   had 


132  Christian  Missions. 

been  accustomed  to  regard  as  a  sacred  Instru- 
ment  When  it  is  remembered    that  the 

treaty  relations  between  the  two  nations  were 
estabHshed  at  the  express  soHcitation  of  your 
government,  and  that  its  every  request  for 
further  stipulations  has  been  met  in  the  high- 
est spirit  of  complaisance,  I  think  you  must 
sympathize  with  my  astonishment  that  the 
body  which  itself  initiated  this  policy,  and 
which  represents  the  intelligence  and  justice  of 
the  great  American  people,  should  trample 
the  treaties  under  foot,  and  grossly  offend  the 
nation  which  has  always  held  these  compacts 
in  such  sacred  esteem." 

Similar  words  might  be  used  to  charac- 
terize the  conduct  of  most  of  the  public  offi- 
cials in  regard  to  the  Rock  Springs  massacre 
of  the  North-west,  where  about  a  score  of 
Chinese  were  cruelly  murdered  by  a  mob  and 
their  homes  and  property  destroyed.  The 
government  was  not  to  blame  for  the  crime 
more  than  for  any  other  act  of  lawlessness  ; 
but  the  subsequent  action  of  the  local  and 
public  officials  has  not  received  so  merciful  a 
judgment.  The  coroner's  jury  said,  "  We 
find  that  these  persons  came  to  their  death  at 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.       133 

the  hands  of  persons  unknown."  The  grand 
jury  said,  ''  We  have  been  entirely  unable  to 
ascertain  by  whom  these  outrages  were  com- 
mitted." The  secretary  of  state,  when  ap- 
pealed to  for  indemnity  to  those  who,  while 
under  solemn  treaty,  had  lost  all  their  property, 
replied,  that  "  While  the  Chinese  government 
did  promise  to  indemnify  Americans  who  suf- 
fer from  mobs  in  China  the  American  oovern- 

o 

ment  did  not  promise  to  indemnify  Chinese." 
Nevertheless,  as  a  gratuity,  he  recommended 
that  some  recompense  should  be  made.  A 
year  after  the  occurrence  the  survivors  were 
still  in  doubt  as  to  whether  the  claim  of  the 
Chinese  minister  would  be  favorably  received 
at  Washington  and  some  reparation  made. 
The  Chinese  have  newspapers  in  their  country 
not  unlike  our  own,  and  through  them  the 
better  classes  are  kept  informed  of  govern- 
ment affairs.  The  impression  which  these 
events  have  produced  touching  the  reception 
of  Christianity  may  be  inferred  from  an  oc- 
currence narrated  by  an  English  missionary 
as  taking  place  in  a  native  chapel,  where  he 
had  explained  to  the  congregation  the  ex- 
cellent nature  of  Christianity,  which  he  urged 


134  Christian  Missions. 

his  hearers  to  accept.  One  of  them,  whom  he 
described  as  having  a  "  dress  bordering  on 
the  shabby,  and  whose  style  seemed  to  indi- 
cate that  he  was  more  famihar  with  the  artisan 
class  than  with  any  other,  though  his  face  had 
a  peculiar  look  of  sharpness  and  intelligence," 
rose,  and  with  a  look  of  suppressed  hatred  and 
bitterness  said  : 

*'  O,  then,  your  object  in  coming  here  is  to 
teach  us  charity  and  benevolence  and  truth 
and  uprightness,  is  it  ?"  I  said,'' Yes."  "If  this 
be  your  object,  then,  why  is  it  that  you  your- 
selves act  in  a  spirit  so  directly  the  reverse  of 
these,  and  force  upon  us  instead  your  abom- 
inable opium  ?  If  your  nation  believes  in  these 
doctrines  as  divine  why  has  it  imported  this 
poisonous  stuff,  to  bring  poverty  and  distress 
and  ruin  throughout  our  land?"  And  as  he 
went  on  he  became  excited,  and  his  eyes 
flashed  and  his  eloquence  grew.  Chinaman- 
like he  rolled  his  head  from  side  to  side, 
while  the  congregation  (which  in  the  mean- 
time had  grown  largely)  looked  on  with  ap- 
proving sympathy.  I  was  so  utterly  taken 
aback  that  I  could  do  nothing  but  quietly  sit 
still   until  he  had   given  full  expression  to  his 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.       135 

feelings.  My  surprise  arose  not  so  much  from 
the  matter  as  the  manner  of  his  accusation. 
It  was  given  forth  in  the  most  offensive  lan- 
guage, and  with  a  force  such  as  I  had  never 
met  with  on  any  previous  occasion.  After  he 
had  finished  what  he  had  to  say  the  congre- 
gation that  was  scattered  about— some  sitting 
on  the  forms,  others  leaning  by  the  door-way, 
and  others  again  bending  over  the  backs 
of  the  seats,  listening  breathlessly  to  what 
the  man  was  saying — with  one  consent 
turned  their  faces  upon  me,  waiting  without 
uttering  a  sound  to  hear  what  would  be  my 
reply.  I  must  say  that  I  never  felt  so  un- 
comfortable in  any  public  meeting  in  my  life 
before  ! 

What  the  man  had  said  I  knew  and  felt  to 
be  truth.  I  began,  therefore,  somewhat  stam- 
meringly,  to  say  something  in  self-defense, 
when  the  man  at  once  stopped  me  by  saying, 
*'  There  is  no  use  in  your  trying  to  get  out  of 
the  matter  by  saying  that  you  have  nothing 
to  do  with  this  opium  system.  Your  country 
has.  It  is  your  nation,  England,  that  is  re- 
sponsible for  all  this  ruin  caused  by  opium. 
It  was  the  English  guns  that  compelled  our  em- 


136  Christian  Missions. 

peror  to  sanction  the  trade,  and  it  is  through 
England  that  it  may  now  be  sold  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  without  our 
government  being  able  to  do  any  thing  effect- 
ual to  prevent  its  spread  throughout  the 
kingdom."  The  facts  of  the  case  were  all  on 
his  side,  though  somewhat  offensively  stated. 
England's  share  in  this  opium  question  is  one 
which  no  reasoning  and  no  sophistry  can  turn 
to  her  honor.  Whatever  of  greatness  or  glory 
there  may  be  in  her  history  to  which  she  can 
point,  there  is  at  least  one  blot  upon  her 
escutcheon  which  will  not  be  easily  effaced, 
and  that  is  that  she  was  the  direct  means  of 
stimulating  and  protecting  a  trade  that  in- 
volves a  third  of  the  human  race  in  evils  which 
no  language  can  describe. 

Would  it  be  strange  if  some  Japanese,  lis- 
tening to  a  sermon  on  Paul's  text  before 
Felix,  should  stop  the  preacher  to  ask  if  the 
kind  of  justice  he  meant  was  the  kind  shown 
by  the  United  States  in  retaining  for  so 
many  years  the  balance  of  the  indemnity 
fund? 

Could  we  blame  the  natives  of  Alaska  if 
they  refused  to  listen   to  a   gospel  from    the 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      137 

lips  of  the  same  race  that  had  treated  their 
women  with  such  indignity  ? 

When  will  the  better  classes  of  Mexico 
forget  that  General  Grant  testified  to  what 
they  already  knew,  that  the  invasion  of  Mexico, 
which  cost  that  country  Texas  and  California, 
was  without  excuse  in  justice,  and  simply  the 
measure  of  a  political  party  to  gain  more  terri- 
tory ?  The  real  reason  for  the  war  was  quaintly 
hinted  at  by  James  Russell  Lowell,  in  the 
famous  Biglow  papers. 

"  Ez  fer  Mexico,  'taint  no  great  glory  to  lick  it; 

But  'twould  be  a  darned  shame  to  go  pulling  o'  triggers 

To  extend  the  aree  of  abusin'  tlie  niggers." 

In  general  these  acts  of  injustice  have  been 
committed  in  the  interest  of  some  political 
party.  The  interests  of  Christianity  and  of 
twenty  million  Christians  have  been  ignored  in 
the  effort  to  save  a  party.  However  it  might 
be  with  the  millennium,  the  next  election  must 
be  made  secure.  Nor  are  these  things  peculiar 
to  our  own  land.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin  says : 
"  Christianity  has  done  but  little  as  yet  to 
meet  the  ]\Ioslem  problem.  It  is  terribly 
handicapped  by  Christian  governments.  While 
in  Islam  every  thing,  good  and  evil,  works  to- 


138  Christian  Missions. 

gather  with  the  Moslem  missionaries  and  helps 
forward  their  work,  the  Christian  missionary  is 
embarrassed  on  every  hand.  The  shameless 
and  abominable  lives  of  so-called  Christians 
who  are  enemies  to  the  cross  of  Christ  are  a 
great  obstacle  to  their  work.  They  deliver 
their  message ;  but  here  comes  a  counter- 
message,  audible  and  visible  and  pernicious. 
The  worst  thing  of  all  Is  that  Christian  govern- 
ments authorize  and  protect  the  traffic  In 
opium  and  alchoholic  liquors  with  equal  stupid- 
ity and  wickedness.  China  and  Africa  are  fill- 
ing up  with  rum  and  opium  faster  than  with 
missionaries.  This  astounding  measure  of 
Christian  governments  will  prove  as  Injurious 
to  enterprise  and  commerce  as  to  missions." 

We  entirely  agree  with  him  In  his  conclud- 
ing sentence.  "  It  Is  time  for  the  Church  of 
God  to  arise  and  demand  that  Christian  gov- 
ernments shall  not  antagonize  Christian  mis- 
sions." 

There  Is  little  doubt  that,  if  Christian  gov- 
ernments would  adopt  a  just  Christian  policy 
toward  pagan  and  semi-pagan  nations,  the  mis- 
sionary might  hope  to  gain  converts  among 
the  influential   aild    from  this  vantage-ground 


Statesmanship  and  Missions.      139 

more  readily  reach  the  masses,  instead  of  being 
driven,  as  he  generally  is,  to  commence  with  the 
pariahs  of  society.  In  the  days  of  Constantine 
and  Theodosius,  in  the  times  of  Eadwine  and 
Clovis,  and  more  recently  in  the  Fiji  Islands, 
the  first  converts  were  from  the  higher  classes. 
It  is  humiliating  thus  to  be  obliged  to  plead 
for  justice,  not  on  the  ground  that  it  is  just, 
but  that  twenty  million  Christian  citizens  ask 
it  at  the  hands  of  government. 


I40  Christian  Missions. 


X. 

METHODS. 
Non  quomodo  sed  quid. 

The  era  of  criticism  on  which  Christian 
missions  seem  to  have  entered  is  rather  to  be 
rejoiced  over  as  a  sign  of  progress  than  de- 
plored as  a  token  of  decHne. 

This  appears  when  we  notice  that  the  critics 
now  confine  themselves  to  methods  of  work, 
whereas  formerly  they  "  compassed  about  and 
beset  behind  and  before,"  after  the  fashion  of 
the  bulls  of  Bashan,  the  entire  subject. 

This  amounts  to  an  admission  that  there  is 
no  longer  a  question  as  to  the  duty  and  prac- 
ticability of  the  project,  and  that  the  question 
of  method  is  the  only  debatable  ground.  In 
the  conduct  of  our  Civil  War,  so  long  as  craven- 
hearted  and  faithless  politicians  called  in  ques- 
tion the  wisdom  or  justice  of  the  attempt  to 
preserve  the  Union,  the  country  was  in  peril ; 
when  at  length  they  turned  attention  to 
methods  that  were  being  used  or  should  be,  or 


Methods.  141 

to  the  conduct  of  the  men  who  were  conduct- 
ing the  war,  the  victory  was  assured.  Fifty 
years  ago,  Sidney  Smith  in  the  pages  of  the 
Edinburgh  Reviczv  gave  examples  of  the  old 
methods  of  opposing  the  cause  of  missions ;  the 
new  has  been  more  recently  illustrated  by 
Canon  Taylor  in  the  Fortnightly.  The  change 
is  significant. 

"  All  missionaries,  let  me  say,"  says  Bishop 
Steele,  *'  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  those  who 
call  attention  to  the  mistakes  and  failure  of 
missions."  The  missionary  should  even  wel- 
come the  strictures  of  enemies  which  help  to  a 
settlement  of  doubtful  questions.  Two  methods 
for  the  conduct  of  missions  are  now  advocated, 
which  an  American  quarterly  has  styled  the 
method  of  stipendiary  missions  and  that  of 
martyr  missions.  In  the  first  of  these,  a  mis- 
sionary is  selected  and  sent  out  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  an  organized  society  which 
assumes  the  responsibility  of  a  stated  salary 
for  his  support,  of  which  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  an 
example. 

The  second  method  makes  more  of  indi- 
vidual action.     The  missionary  goes  out  with- 


142  Christian  Missions. 

out  promise  of  any  support,  depending  on  his 
own  exertions  and  the  providence  of  God  to 
supply  his  wants,  with  what  chance  aid  may 
come  from  friends  of  himself  or  his  cause. 
Bishop  Taylor's  African  work  and  that  of  the 
China  Inland  Mission  are  examples  of  this 
method. 

Martyr  missions  have  gained  a  host  of  friends 
of  late,  though  their  enthusiasm  would  mean 
more  if  they  themselves  evinced  any  eagerness 
to  join  the  "  noble  army  of  martyrs,"  or  were 
willing  to  accept  of  any  other  than  the  sti- 
pendiary method  for  the  supply  of  their  own 
wants,  however  much  they  advocated  them 
for  others.  The  method  contemplated  by 
martyr  missions  has,  on  the  other  hand,  been 
severely  criticised  as  a  waste  of  valuable  lives 
and  resources  ;  and  from  an  official  eminence 
we  have  the  statement,  "  It  has  often  been 
tried  but  the  result  has  in  no  case  corres- 
ponded with  the  expectation  of  its  projectors." 
A  glance  at  the  history  of  missions  will  con- 
vince those  who  are  not  hopelessly  biased 
that  martyr  missions  have  indeed  often  been 
tried  and  that  they  have  often  been  grandly 
successful ;      indeed,     that    whatever     success 


Methods.  143 

the  cause  of  missions  has  had  has  been 
mainly  through  martyr  missions.  It  further- 
more reveals  that  stipendary  missions  have 
not  often  been  tried  ;  indeed  are  something 
quite  new  to  the  history  of  the  Church,  whose 
real  value  remains  to  be  seen. 

To  appreciate  this  it  is  necessary  that  we 
reject  the  baseless  supposition  that  the  mis- 
sionary work  is  a  movement  of  this  century  or 
that  efforts  have  not  been  made  for  the  con- 
version of  the  heathen  by  the  Greek  and 
Roman  Churches,  just  as  genuine  as  our  own. 
There  have  been,  apart  from  the  movement 
under  consideration,  three  great  missionary 
epochs,  widely  separated  in  point  of  time,  but 
one  in  spirit  and  singularly  one  as  to  the 
methods  used. 

They  were  the  evangelization  of  the  Roman 
Empire  by  the  Church  of  the  first  three  cent- 
uries, the  conversion  of  the  nations  of  northern 
Europe  by  the  great  missionary  movement  of 
the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  and  the  mis- 
sionary revival  of  the  Moravian  Church  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Jerusalem,  loni,  and 
Herrnhut  were  the  three  great  centers  and 
are  the  present  Meccas  of  missions.     In  each 


144  Christian  Missions. 

of  these  movements  martyr  missions  had  elo- 
quent illustration. 

The  first,  which  by  divine  command  began 
at  Jerusalem,  was  so  marked  and  glorious  that 
the  author  of  TJie  Decline  and  Fall  of 
the  Roma7t  Empire  found  it  necessary  to 
devote  an  entire  chapter  to  explain  away  the 
more  remarkable  features  of  it. 

A  company  of  fishermen,  tax-gatherers,  and 
artisans,  without  influence  or  military  backing, 
begin  their  testimony  at  Jerusalem,  but  soon 
go  to  Samaria  and  Antioch,  then  to  Asia 
Minor,  then  across  the  sea  to  Greece  and  on 
to  Rome.  Others  turn  to  the  East  and  visit 
Persia  and  Arabia,  while  still  others  visit  the 
land  of  the  pyramids  and  the  Nile.  They 
make  converts,  empty  idol  temples  of  wor- 
shipers, call  forth  letters  from  consuls,  make 
the  highway  and  wilderness  places  resound 
with  the  praises  of  newly  converted  souls,  and 
fix  the  attention  of  the  crowds  of  the  great 
cities  with  doctrines  new  and  startling.  Per- 
secution rages.  Nero  uses  some  of  them  for 
burning  torches  to  light  his  gardens,  and 
amuses  the  populace  by  turning  the  lions  on 
others  in  the  amphitheater,  with  only  the  re- 


Methods.  145 

suit  of  sowing  a  bountiful  supply  of  martyr 
seed.  In  vain  he  issues  edicts  of  persecution. 
He  cannot  even  keep  the  new  faith  out  of  his 
own  palace  and  household,  where  the  saints 
are  found  and  from  whence  they  send  greet- 
ings. His  edicts  become  more  and  more  in- 
operative, because  they  often  fall  into  the 
hands  of  officers  who  are  themselves  Christians. 
Finally  it  is  found  vain  longer  to  resist,  and 
the  great  empire  becomes  Christian  in  form  as 
it  already  was  in  fact.  As  to  the  method 
used  in  this  age  of  marvels — it  was  plainly  that 
of  martyr  missions.  There  was  no  edifice  in 
Jerusalem  called  the  missionary  building  of 
the  Nazarenes,  nor  was  there  any  session  of  a 
committee  on  missions.  They  had  not  even 
a  treasurer  of  a  transit  fund.  Thomas  went 
to  India,  Bartholomew  to  Persia,  and  Peter  to 
Rome  with  no  promise  of  support.  They  de- 
pended on  their  own  labors,  on  the  gratitude 
of  those  to  whom  they  ministered,  on  the  gifts 
of  friends,  and  always  on  the  providence  of 
God.  The  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  insisted  on 
supporting  himself  by  the  labor  of  his  own 
hands.  Others  depended  for  the  supply  of 
their  necessities  on  the  churches  which  every- 
10 


146  Christian  Missions. 

where    sprung   up.     In  those    days   every  be- 
liever was  required  to  be  a  missionary.     His 
first    great    duty   was    to    testify    for    Christ. 
Christian     sailors,     soldiers,    and     merchants, 
wherever    duty    called    them    or    persecution 
drove  them,  were  expected  to  speak  boldly  for 
the  new  faith.     To  refrain  from  this  was  not 
only  a  sin,  but  a  sin  which  it  was  currently  be- 
lieved  had    never    forgiveness.       Hence    John 
was  on  the  Isle  of  Patmos  *'  for  the  word  of 
God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ."    Peter 
confessed   before   the  council  that  he   "  could 
not  but  speak  of  the  things  which  he  had  seen 
and  heard."       Phebe   became   "  a  servant    of 
the     Church    in    Cenchrea."        Priscilla     and 
Aquila  were  "helpers  in  Christ  Jesus,"  even 
to   the   extent   of  "  laying  down   their  necks" 
for  him.     Mary  "  bestowed  much  labor."     An- 
dronicus  and  Junia  were  ''  fellow-prisoners  of 
note."       Triphena    and    Tryphosa    ''labored 
much  in  the  Lord."     Timothy  "  endured  hard- 
ship as  a  good  soldier."     Onesiphorus  made  a 
journey    to    Rome    to    succor    an    imprisoned 
apostle,  of  whose  chain  he  was  not  ashamed, 
while  Y^xA,  facile princcpSy  was  *'  in  labors  more 
abundant,  in  stripes  above  measure,  in  prisons 


Methods.  147 

more  frequent,  in  deaths  oft,"  constrained  by 
a  mighty  love  which  led  him  ever  on  to  the 
regions  beyond,  as  an  engine  is  kept  throbbing 
by  its  furnace  fires.  The  spirit  of  the  entire 
movement  was  that  which  actuates  all  true 
missionaries,  but  the  method  was  peculiarly 
that  of  martyr  missions.  Here  was  an  example 
of  self-supporting  missions,  where  the  result 
not  only  corresponded  with,  but  exceeded,  the 
expectations  of  the  projectors. 

The  second  great  missionary  movement  was 
directed  toward  the  conversion  of  the  nations 
of  northern  Europe.  The  proclamation  of 
Theodosius,  which,  rather  than  the  edict  of 
Constantine,  marked  the  conquest  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire  to  Christianity,  found  the  tribes  of 
northern  Europe  savage  as  to  civilization  and 
pagans  in  religion.  A  map  of  the  world  in 
A.  D.  600  would  certainly  represent  all  Europe 
north  of  the  Rhine  in  jet  black.  The  Church 
planted  in  Britain  had  about  perished  with  the 
conquest  of  the  country  by  the  Saxons,  and 
Gildas,  their  own  historian,  admits  that  they 
never  thought  it  worth  while  to  attempt  to 
teach  the  Saxons.  A  few  sparks  may  have 
remained  alive  amonc:  the  embers  in  Ireland, 


148  Christian  Missions. 

but  all  else  was  blackness  of  darkness.  Strange 
to  say,  the  light  which  dawned  on  these  na- 
tions sitting  in  darkness  was  not  from  Jerusa- 
lem or  Rome,  but  from  these  waning  sparks, 
which  had  somehow  been  kindled  into  a  Pharos 
beacon  light  which  shone  out  all  over  Europe. 
One  little  island  on  the  north  coast  of  Scotland 
was  the  center  of  this  movement, 
lona — 

"  Isle  of  Columba's  cell, 
Where  Christian  piety's  soul-cheering  spark, 
Kindled  from  heaven  between  the  light  and  dark 
Of  time,  shone  like  a  morning  star." 

Well  might  Wordsworth  and  Johnson  grow 
eloquent  over  a  bit  of  land,  three  miles  in 
length  and  half  as  broad,  where  Columba  estab- 
lished his  missionary  training-college  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  North.  He  was  only  one 
of  many,  though  the  greatest,  and  lona  only  one 
center,  though  the  most  conspicuous  among 
several,  and  the  year  when  he  established  his 
college  only  the  center  in  point  of  time  of  a 
movement  that  was  widespread  and  long  con- 
tinued. The  inspiration  of  the  work  was  not 
received  from  Rome.  It  was  singularly  spon- 
taneous and  evangelic:il,  and  more  allied  to  the 


Methods.  149 

spirit  of  Protestantism  than  of  Roman  Cathol- 
icism. It  was  even  antagonized  by  Rome  at 
several  points.  According  to  Columba's  plan, 
those  whose  hearts  were  on  fire  to  preach  to 
the  northern  nations  were  invited  to  lona, 
where  they  received  a  thorough  training  for  the 
work,  which  included  manual  labor  and  the 
trades,  as  well  as  prayer,  meditation,  and 
instruction.  They  were  not  all  ordained,  and 
many  of  them  were  married.  "  From  this  nest 
of  Columba's  the  sacred  doves  went  forth," 
generally  in  companies  of  twelve.  The  first 
step  was  to  build  a  mission  house,  or  monas- 
tery, as  a  basis  of  supplies  and  a  refuge  in  emer- 
gencies. Sometimes  as  traveling  evangelists 
they  cut  loose  from  all  ties  and  went  out  with- 
out purse  or  scrip  or  two  coats,  eating  such 
things  as  were  set  before  them,  and  when  this 
failed  resorting  to  roots  and  berries  of  the  for- 
est. A  deed  of  Boniface  illustrated  the  bold 
martyr  spirit  which  actuated  them.  Coming 
to  Fitzlar  he  saw  the  thunder-oak  of  Grismar, 
which  the  people  so  reverenced  that  he  who 
broke  a  twig  expected  instant  death.  Plainly 
the  way  to  uproot  this  superstition  was  to  cut 
down  the  tree.    This  Boniface  proceeded  to  do, 


150  Christian  Missions. 

to  the  consternation  of  the  beholders,  who  at 
once  reasoned  that  if  Thor  could  not  protect 
himself  he  must  be  useless.  Of  the  wood  of 
the  oak  Boniface  made  a  chapel. 

Concerning  the  manner  of  life  of  the  mis- 
sionaries the  oldest  of  the  English  historians 
WTites : 

"  Receiving  only  the  necessary  food  from 
those  they  taught,  living  themselves  in  all  re- 
spects conformably  to  what  they  prescribed  to 
others,  and  being  disposed  to  suffer  any  ad- 
versity and  even  to  die  for  the  truth  they 
preached." 

Not  every  king  into  whose  domains  they 
entered  received  them  so  favorably  as  did 
Athelbert,  who  said  after  hearing  the  first  ser- 
mon, "  We  will  not  molest  you,  but  give  you 
favorable  entertainment  and  take  care  to  sup- 
ply your  necessary  sustenance." 

That  they  were  soon  able  to  care  for  them- 
selves seems  evident  from  the  fact  that  the 
pope,  when  he  heard  of  the  great  success  of 
the  missions,  sent  sacred  vessels  and  vestments 
for  the  altars,  also  ornaments  for  the  churches, 
and  relics  of  the  holy  apostles,  and  books,  but 
no  money.     The  method  in  this  case  was  that 


Methods.  151 

of  self-support.  It  received  eloquent  illustra- 
tion in  the  labors  of  Ulphilas,  Martin  of  Tours, 
Columbanus,  Cyril,  Methodius,  and  Anschor. 
The  story  of  their  labors,  trials,  and  heroic 
deaths  remains  for  the  pen  of  some  historian 
unbiased  enough  to  do  justice  to  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  disappearance 
of  every  vestige  of  idolatry  from  the  regions 
where  they  taught  is  evidence  enough  of  their 
success.  This  was  another  example  of  martyr 
missions  which  was  not  disappointing  to  the 
projectors.  The  most  successful  missions  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  have  generally 
been  conducted  after  this  plan.  The  famous 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  was 
only  formed  in  Lyons  in  1822,  and  has  never 
raised  more  than  one  and  a  quarter  million  dol- 
lars a  year,  which  sum  will  not  account  for  the 
world-wide  missions  of  that  Church. 

The  third  great  missionary  movement  was 
inaugurated  at  Herrnhut,  Germany,  in  the  year 

1733- 

It  was  not  simply  begotten  by  the  Mora- 
vian Church— it  zvas  the  Church.  As  usual, 
the  movement  was  great  in  proportion  as 
the  ao-ents  that  carried  it  on  were  poor  and 


152  Christian  Missions. 

obscure.  The  Moravian  Church  numbered  only 
six  hundred  poor  despised  exiles  when  they 
commenced  to  go  abroad.  So  late  as  1886  the 
home  churches  of  Europe  and  the  United 
States  were  only  able  to  raise  ^16,803,  though 
the  proceeds  of  industrial  enterprises  and  of 
schools  connected  with  the  missions  brought 
up  the  sum  to  ;^50,000.  This  shows  that  the 
stipendiary  plan,  if  adopted,  must  have  dwarfed 
their  undertaking  to  a  point  beneath  the  notice 
of  history.  Moravian  missions  are  historic 
mainly  because  they  were  martyr  missions. 
With  such  poverty  and  paucity  of  numbers 
they  were  able  in  nine  years  from  the  begin- 
ning to  send  missionaries  to  Greenland,  St. 
Thomas,  St.  Croix,  to  Surinam,  Rio  de  Barbice, 
to  the  blacks  and  Indians  of  North  America, 
to  Lapland,  Tartary,  Algiers,  Guinea,  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  Ceylon. 

In  the  year  in  which  Perry  gained  his  great 
victory  on  Lake  Erie  a  review  of  the  past 
showed  that,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
missionaries  in  the  field,  they  had  won  a  greater 
victory  at  thirty-three  different  points,  where 
they  had  enrolled  27,400  converts.  The  method 
adopted  for  carrying  on  this  work  was  essen- 


Methods.  i53 

tially  that  of  self-support.  The  missionaries 
were  at  liberty  to  state  their  wants  to  the 
home  church,  which  supplied  such  of  them  as 
their  limited  means  would  allow.  For  the  bal- 
ance they  depended  on  themselves  and  God. 

Christian  David,  the  pioneer  of  the  move- 
ment, wrote  concerning  his  departure  on  this 
work : 

''  There  was  no  need  for  much  time  or  ex- 
pense for  our  equipment.  The  congregation 
consisted  chiefly  of  poor  despised  exiles  who 
had  not  much  to  give,  and  we  ourselves  had 
nothing  but  the  clothes  on  our  backs.  Being 
accustomed  to  make  a  shift  with  little  we  did 
not  trouble  our  heads  how  we  should  get  to 
Greenland  or  how  we  should  live  in  that 
country." 

Yet  they  were  not  without  plans  for  the 
future,  for  when  asked  how  they  intended  to 
support  themselves,  providing  they  succeeded 
in  reaching  there,  they  answered  that  they  in- 
tended to  build  a  house  and  cultivate  the  land 
by  the  labor  of  their  hands,  that  they  might 
not  be  burdensome  to  any.  When  told  that 
there  was  no  wood  in  that  country  they  re- 
plied, "  Then  we  will  dig  in  the  earth  and  lodge 


154  Christian  Missions. 

there."  They  proved  their  scheme  to  be  feas- 
ible by  carrying  it  out  and  making  the  Green- 
land mission  a  grand  success. 

Leonard  Dober,  who  had  It  on  his  heart  to 
go  to  St.  Thomas,  said,  "  If  no  other  way  offers 
I  will  sell  myself  as  a  slave  there."  He  com- 
menced work  at  St.  Thomas  by  hiring  out  as  a 
steward  to  a  planter.  When  the  way  opened 
he  devoted  himself  wholly  to  his  chosen  work 
and  won  the  praise  of  Bryan  Edwards,  the 
historian  of  the  island,  who  testified  to  the 
sound  judgment,  evangelical  spirit,  and  great 
success  of  Dober  and  his  companions. 

Of  the  work  of  the  brethren  in  South  Amer- 
ica, whither  some  pf  them  went  in  1738,  we 
read,  ''  After  working  some  time  in  the  com- 
pany's plantation  they  took  a  piece  of  land  on 
the  borders  of  the  colony  and  cultivated  it  on 
their  own  account,  in  the  hope  of  at  length 
finding  an  opportunity  to  make  known  the 
Gospel  among  the  pagan  inhabitants." 

Others  in  1847  established  a  mission  among 
the  Tartars,  going  first  to  St.  Petersburg  and 
then  two  thousand  miles  overland  to  Czarizin. 
"  Here  they  began  to  erect  the  buildings  nec- 
essary for  their  accommodation,   to  cultivate 


Methods.  155 

the  land,  and  to  work  at  their  respective 
trades,  with  a  view  to  the  support  of  the 
colony." 

A  physician  of  their  number  undertook  the 
establishment  of  a  mission  in  Persia  in  1789. 
*'  His  plan,  which  he  carried  out,  was  to  practice 
as  a  physician  in  Cairo  ;  to  learn  the  Arabic 
language  ;  to  establish  a  correspondence  with 
the  patriarch  of  the  Copts,  and  through  him  to 
form  an  acquaintance  with  the  Abana  himself." 

The  leader  of  the  company  that  in  1752  went 
to  Labrador  had  before  visited  that  region 
several  times  as  mate  of  a  fishing  vessel.  Small 
wonder  that  with  such  a  practiced  man  in  the 
lead  ''  they  took  a  house  ready  framed,  a  boat, 
various  kinds  of  implements  and  seeds  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  ground."  The  inability  of 
the  home  church  to  supply  the  wants  of  those 
who  went  out  made  it  necessary  that  they 
should  be  men  who  had  had  experience  in  the 
practical  affairs  of  life  and  had  some  trade  by 
which  they  could  live.  Aside  from  this  it  was 
the  settled  belief  of  this  community  of  mission- 
aries that  the  habits  of  a  student  were  not  so 
well  calculated  to  form  a  person  for  that  work 
as  those  of  a  mechanic. 


156  Christian  Missions. 

In  1759  thirteen  single  brethren  left  for 
Tranquebar,  an  island  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
where,  "  having  purchased  a  piece  of  ground 
about  a  mile  from  the  town,  they  built  them- 
selves a  house,  together  with  some  workshops 
and  outhouses,  wrought  at  their  trades,  and 
met  with  good  sale  for  the  articles  they  made/' 

The  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  visited  by 
George  Smitd  in  1736,  who,  on  his  arrival,  after 
the  manner  of  others,  "  fixed  a  spot  for  settle- 
ment and  proceeded  to  build  a  hut  and  plant 
a  garden." 

The  method  adopted  by  these  remarkable 
men  in  their  work  is  thus  beyond  question.  It 
was  essentially  the  samie  in  all  the  three  great 
missionary  epochs.  The  revival  of  spiritual 
religion  under  Whitefield  and  Wesley  was 
brought  to  this  country  in  a  like  manner.  A 
carpenter  who  wrought  at  his  trade,  a  captain 
in  his  majesty's  service,  and  a  farmer  were  the 
earliest  agents  in  this  work. 

The  self-supporting  plan  for  missions  is  as 
old  as  Christianity,  and  the  Church  has  won  all 
its  great  triumphs  in  the  past  by  the  use  of 
this  method. 

The  objection   is  sometimes   made  to   self- 


Methods.  157 

supporting  missions  that  they  entail  needless 
and  unreasonable  hardship  on  those  who  carry 
them  on.  Strangely  enough,  the  objection 
which  history  brings  against  them  is  the  pos- 
session of  too  much  wealth  and  the  tendency 
to  overmuch  ease.  Augustine  and  his  forty 
companions  went  to  Britain  like  Jacob  to  Beer- 
sheba,  with  a  staff  only.  So  much  in  harmony 
was  their  experience  with  that  of  those  who, 
going  out  under  like  circumstance,  ''lacked 
nothing,"  that  the  first  troublesome  question 
which  arose,  concerning  which  advice  was 
sought  from  Rome,  was  about  the  use  and  dis- 
posal of  the  property  the  Church  had  gained. 
The  Franciscan  fathers  on  the  Pacific  coast 
encountered  the  same  difficulty.  Father  Juni- 
pero  Serra,  the  pioneer,  is  represented  as  stand- 
ing on  the  deck  of  the  vessel  that  bore  him  from 
Mexico  to  California  having  on  his  person  his 
entire  possessions,  which  were  a  garment  of 
cloth,  bound  about  the  loins  with  a  hempen 
cord,  and  a  crucifix.  His  successors  became 
great  land  owners  and  cattle  graziers,  and  forgot 
the  true  object  of  the  mission  in  overmuch 
prosperity. 

The    Roman    Catholic    missions   in   Mexico 


158  Christian  Missions. 

and  the  efforts  of  many  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
apostoHc  Church  met  the  same  fate.  The 
fact  that  those  who  thus  take  their  lives  in 
their  hands  have  no  vices  to  consume  their 
resources  or  to  hinder  their  labors,  and  that  such 
manifest  self-sacrifice  calls  forth  liberal  gifts,  has 
made  the  self-supporting  plan  the  most  suc- 
cessful financial  policy — even  to  the  extreme 
of  danger. 

The  same  plan  seems  to  offer  the  only  feasi- 
ble mode  of  expansion  commensurate  with 
the  demands  of  the  work  and  the  opening 
doors. 

The  gifts  of  the  churches  of  Great  Britain 
to  the  cause  of  missions  during  a  decade  were 
as  follows : 

1873-1S77  (Average  per  year)  £1,047,809 

1878-1S82  "  "       "  1,100,462 

1883-1887  '•  "       "  1,218,163 

The  gift  of  this  most  Christian  country  to  the 
cause  of  missions  is  at  a  stand,  and  to  many  it 
seems  as  if  the  limit  had  been  reached.  Three 
million  dollars  contributed  annually  by  the 
churches  of  the  United  States  is  certainly  far 
from  the  sum  which  may  be  reasonably  expected 
in  the  future,  but  there  is  a  limit  which  must 


Methods.  159 

some  day  be  reached  and  which  some  think  to 
be  in  sig-ht. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  admitted  by  all  that 
the  work  in  pagan  lands  is  only  begun.  Many 
missionaries  are  the  sole  means  of  Christian 
instruction  to  more  than  a  million  souls ;  and 
what  are  these  among  so  many  ?  Where  there 
is  one  Christian  worker  there  should  be  one 
hundred,  and  where  there  is  no  one  there 
should  be  ten.  We  have  truly  only  been  play- 
ing at  the  work  of  evangelization. 

But  how  is  such  an  expansion  possible?  By 
the  method  most  now  in  use  it  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. Allowing  the  gifts  of  the  churches  to 
increase  at  the  rate  expected  by  the  most  san- 
guine, and  this  to  be  supplem.ented  by  the 
efforts  of  churches  formed  on  native  soil,  still 
the  sum  is  but  an  approximation  to  the 
amount  needed.  But  heroism  and  self-sacri- 
fice among  twenty  million  Christians  are  not 
easily  exhausted. 

If  six  hundred  poor  exiles  could  on  self- 
supporting  lines  send  out  from  Herrnhut  so 
many  successful  workers,  what  might  twenty 
million  Christians  do  working  in  the  sam.e 
way  ? 


i6o  Christian  Missions. 

The  Salvation  Army  claims  to  have  three 
thousand  foreign  missionaries,  or  more  than 
half  as  many  as  all  the  rest  of  Christendom  put 
together.  Allowing  that  many  of  these  are 
inexperienced  and  incompetent  yet  they  man- 
age to  live,  largely  through  means  obtained 
where  they  labor.  This  shows  that  the  plan 
of  self-support  is  not  only  possible  in  most 
cases,  but  admits  of  boundless  expansion. 

The  supply  of  men  has  generally  been  in  ex- 
cess of  that  of  money,  and  increases  according 
to  the  measure  of  sacrifice  demanded.  A  call 
for  one  or  ten  thousand  young  men  from  En- 
gland or  America  to  go  out,  as  did  the  apostles, 
the  monks  of  Columba,  or  the  humble  workers 
of  Herrnhut,  would  not  be  unheeded.  If 
there  is  any  thing  that  would  unlock  the  coffers 
of  unused  wealth  in  the  Church,  and  pour  it 
out  in  lavish  waste,  like  Mary's  box  of  oint- 
ment, it  is  such  a  move  as  this.  The  sacrifice 
of  the  missionary,  as  well  as  the  merit  of  his 
cause,  has  helped  the  Missionary  Society  to 
such  resources  as  it  has  had,  but  the  prying 
eyes  of  scribbling  travelers  have  been  looking 
in  on  the  comfortable  homes  of  the  missionary, 
and   his  lot  no  longer  calls  forth  special  com- 


Methods.  i6i 

miseration  among  the  well-informed.  In  this 
the  missionary  societies  have  only  shown  com- 
mon business  prudence  in  looking  after  the 
comfort  of  those  whom  they  employed,  with 
an  eye  to  their  highest  efficiency  and  long  con- 
tinuance in  the  work. 

Nevertheless  Christianity  needs  heroes  and 
martyrs  in  the  missionary  work  to  inspire  the 
self-sacrifice  of  the  Church,  and  this  martyr 
missions  can  supply.  The  day  is,  perhaps,  not 
far  off  when  the  voluntary  and  self-supporting 
method  by  which  the  Church  has  won  most  of 
her  missionary  success  in  the  past  will  again 
take  its  place  as  the  plan  chiefly  relied  on  in 
the    last   great   struggle   with    paganism   and 

antichrist. 
11 


1 62  Christian  Missions. 


XL 

SUCCESS. 

Yexilla  Regis  proderent 
Fulget  crucis  mysterium. 

The  fact  that  those  who  support  the  cause 
of  missions  are  business  men,  accustomed  to 
business  methods,  explains  the  demand  so 
often  made  for  an  exhibit  of  the  results  of 
Christian  missions  up  to  date.  It  seems  reason- 
able, at  least  from  a  commercial  stand-point, 
that  after  a  series  of  years  in  which  assessments 
have  been  levied  with  great  regularity,  there 
should  come  a  time  for  the  declaration  of  a 
dividend,  or  at  least  for  an  accounting  and 
summing  up  of  results.  Unfortunately  for  this 
way  of  looking  at  things,  we  do  not  occupy 
the  relation  of  business  proprietors  in  the  cause 
of  missions,  but  only  that  of  servants  unto  a 
master  or  soldiers  under  a  general.  *'  Whatso- 
ever he  saith  under  you,  do  it "  sums  up  our 
duty  in  the  case.  Though  we  could  see  no 
outcome,  our  labors  may  be  necessary  ''  for  a 


Success.  163 

witness  against  them  "  to  make  it  clear  to  all 
that  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  had  done  right, 
having  done  for  his  vineyard  all  that  he 
could. 

In  undertaking  to  sum  up  the  results  of  mis- 
sionary labor  we  find  it  difficult  to  reduce  to 
statistics  or  to  express  in  figures  or  words 
the  most  cherished  results.  The  power  of  the 
most  approved  steam-engine  is  accurately 
known,  and  stated  as  equal  to  that  of  a  given 
number  of  horses,  and  the  brilliancy  of  the 
most  powerful  electric  light  is  known  as  equal 
to  the  light  of  a  given  number  of  candles  ;  but 
no  one  attempts  to  reduce  to  figures  the  power 
of  the  moon  to  attract,  as,  for  instance,  the 
tides,  or  of  the  sun  to  give  light.  The  great 
forces  are  imponderable  and  immeasurable,  as 
rs  the  effect  of  the  lives  of  truly  great  men, 
like  John  Knox  or  Savonarola.  The  richest 
and  most  permanent  results  of  missionary 
labor  are  those  which  do  not  appear  in  the 
table  of  missionary  statistics.  The  number  of 
members  reported  this  year  may  by  persecution 
or  apostasy  be  much  less  the  next,  and  the 
missionary  property  of  this  year  be  consumed 
by  fire  before  the  next  report,  but  the  gradual 


164  Christian  Missions. 

leavening  of  the  mass  by  the  Gospel,  the  ton- 
ing up  of  society  along  lines  before  neglected, 
the  air  of  doubt  and  suspicion  that  gathers 
about  the  worship  of  idols,  the  lessening  of  the 
tone  of  contempt,  and  the  absence  of  the  old 
assumption  of  superiority,  the  willing  ear,  and 
sometimes  the  hunger  and  thirst  for  hearing 
the  word  of  God — these  are  effects  that  abide 
and  are  important.  What  does  not  appear  in 
the  table  of  statistics  is  greater  than  that  which 
does. 

The  demand  for  facts  and  figureS;  if  insisted 
upon,  may  readily  be  met  by  pointing  to  the 
entire  body  of  Christianity  in  all  lands,  which 
is  altogether  a  result  of  missionary  labor.  In 
the  literature  created  by  Christianity,  the 
benevolent  institutions  called  into  being,  the 
colleges  and  seminaries  founded,  the  churches 
built,  the  wealth  created,  the  Sunday-schools 
organized,  and  the  members  enrolled,  the  lover 
of  the  exact  in  religion  may  revel  in  facts  and 
figures  to  any  extent  he  wishes.  Separate 
undertakings  for  the  evangelization  of  single 
races  may  readily  be  traced,  and  results  of 
vast  magnitude  found  to  have  grown  out  of 
missionary    labor.       Christianity    in     Europe, 


Success.  165 

Britain,   or  the  United  States  owes  its  exist- 
ence to  the  missionary. 

The  actual  results  of  the  modern  movement 
to  evangelize  pagan  peoples,  as  given  in   the 
missionary  year-book,  are  matter  of  just  pride. 
We  have  only  to  remember  that  the  present 
movement   is  less   than   a   century  old ;  that 
when  Dr.  Ryland  bade  the  young  Carey,  who 
was  pleading  for  a  Gospel  among  the  heathen, 
to   **  sit  down,  when  God  wants  the  heathen 
converted  he  wuU  attend  to  it,"  he  was  giving 
expression  to  a  nearly  unanimous  sentiment, 
which    showed  that  the  Church   had    first    to 
be  converted  to  foreign  missions ;  that  every 
pagan   land   was    at    that    time   hermetically 
sealed  against  the  Gospel;  that   Christianity 
w^as  in  desperate  straits  to  maintain  its  spirit- 
uality and  even  existence.    With  this  in  mind, 
the  triumphs  of  missions  are  not  only  satisfac- 
tory but  marvelous.     It  is  useless  to  expect 
some  travelers  to  find  any  fruit  of  missionary 
labor,  because  they  have  no  eyes  to  see  or  ex- 
perience to  qualify  them  to  know  of  its  char- 
acter if  brought  to  their  attention.     Professor 
Darwin,  whose  accuracy  as  an  observer  no  one 
will  question,  was  an  example  of  another  class. 


i66  Christian  Missions. 

While  with  the  Beagle  on  her  voyage  he  saw 
enough  of  missionary  labor  in  Terre  del  Fuego, 
a  most  unpromising  land  from  which  to  expect 
a  favorable  report,  to  draw  from  him  the  con- 
fession :  ''  It  is  most  wonderful ;  and  it  shames 
me,  as  I  always  prophesied  failure.  It  is  a 
grand  success.*.'  Over  against  the  testimony 
of  travelers  of  the  former  kind  as  to  what  they 
did  not  see  we  may  safely  put  the  more  posi- 
tive witness  of  Mr.  Darwin  and  thousands  of 
others  as  to  what  they  did  see. 

The  statistics  of  foreign  missions  are  easily 
accessible  and  are  worthy  of  careful  study. 
A  few  facts  seem  to  be  established  : 

I.  Not  only  has  there  been  marked  progress 
but  as  signal  victories  as  Christianity  has  ever 
won  have  been  made  in  the  cause  of  missions 
during  the  present  century.  The  progress  of 
the  Gospel  in  the  first  three  centuries  has  been 
reckoned  as  one  of  the  evidences  of  its  divine 
origin.  The  proof  of  the  heavenly  origin  of 
the  Gospel  must  then  be  accumulating,  for  the 
progress  in  the  mission  fields  during  the  nine- 
teenth century  surpasses  that  in  either  of  the 
first  three  cenuries.  Gibbon  estimates  the 
number  of  Christians  at  the  close  of  the  first 


Success.  167 

century  as  100,000.  In  a  single  country,  that 
of  India,  only  seventy  years  after  Carey's  first 
baptism  of  a  convert,  there  were  73,000  native 
Christian  converts,  and  a  nominal  Christian 
population  among  the  natives  of  over  300,000. 
Taking  all  the  mission  fields  together,  it  is 
beyond  doubt  that  the  triumphs  of  the  Gospel 
in  this  century  equal  any  that  went  before. 

2.  The  rate  of  progress  increases  year  by 
year.  In  India,  for  instance,  the  number  of  na- 
tive Christians  was  approximately  as  follows  : 

1830 27,000 

1850 102,951 

i860 213,370 

1870 318,369 

1880 528,590 

1889 Soo.ooo 

In  Japan,  Madagascar,  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
Fiji,  the  ratio  of  increase  was  even  greater. 
This  means  the  certain  and  speedy  conquest  of 
paganism,  if  present  conditions  remain. 

3.  The  progress  of  Christianity  in  the  East 
equals  that  which  was  made  by  other  religions 
in  their  most  brilliant  eras,  as  for  instance 
Buddhism  or  Moslemism  In  their  early  stages. 
Vast  regions  of  the  East  were  soon  overrun  by 


i68  Christian  Missions. 

Moslem  arms,  but  this  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  conversion  of  the  people  to  that  faith, 
which  was  much  slower.  Buddhism  grew  rap- 
idly, especially  during  the  life-time  of  Gautama, 
but  Christianity  surpasses  either  at  its  best. 
This  is  surprising  when  we  remember  that  the 
tenets  of  most  ethnic  religions  are  carefully 
adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the  natural 
heart  and  seldom  demand  an  altered  life. 
Getting  religion  under  such  circumstances 
is  so  easy  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  at  times 
the  progress  is  rapid,  but  not  more  so  than  of 
that  religion  which  at  the  start  says,  "  Except 
ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children, 
ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
4.  Progress  in  the  evangelization  of  pagan 
peoples  is  as  rapid  as  can  be  made  with  safety. 
*'  Sudden  effects  in  history,"  says  John  Stuart 
Mill, ''  are  generally  superficial ;  causes  which  go 
down  deep  into  the  roots  of  future  events  pro- 
duce the  most  serious  parts  of  their  effects  only 
slowly  and  must  have  time  to  become  a  part  of 
the  familiar  order  of  things."  History  plainly 
demonstrates  that  when  progress  has  been  too 
rapid  a  reaction  always  sets  in.  The  trans- 
formation of  society  during  the  first  three  cent- 


Success.  169 

uries  was  of  this  character,  and  a  reaction  set 
in  which  for  a  time  threatened  to  ruin  all.  The 
too  speedy  acceptance  of  the  Gospel  by  the 
Saxons  under  Ethelbert  was  followed  by  a  re- 
vival of  paganism.  The  reformation  of  Luther 
was  rapid  and  startling,  but  the  reaction  which 
came  at  the  close  testified  that  in  the  impor- 
tant matter  of  reconstructing  religious  thought 
among  a  people,  the  more  haste  sometimes 
means  the  less  speed.  Japan,  to  some,  seems 
to  be  approaching  .the  same  danger-point. 
Seldom  has  any  nation  ever  abandoned  so 
hastily  its  old  traditions,  religious  and  polit- 
ical, and  never  perhaps  without  suffering  the 
penalty  which  we  hope  the  Land  of  the  Rising 
Sun  may  escape. 

5.  The  attempt  to  introduce  the  Christian 
religion  into  the  Orient  has  met  at  least  with  as 
rapid  success  as  has  the  effort  to  introduce  the 
arts  and  sciences,  especially  the  appliances  and 
inventions  of  the  West.  At  the  opening  of  this 
century  the  East  was  destitute  of  both  West- 
ern science  and  religion.  The  tools  of  the 
workmen,  the  modes  of  travel,  the  homes, 
books,  merchandise  were  rude  as  the  religion. 
As  to  all  the  appliances  of  modern  civilization 


170  Christian  Missions. 

Western  nations  have  felt  called  upon  to  sup- 
ply the  East,  and  sometimes  at  the  cannon's 
mouth  have  demanded  open  ports  for  trade. 
Commerce  has  pressed  into  every  open  door 
and  unlocked  some  that  were  shut.  The  mis- 
sionary, on  the  other  hand,  has  gone  out  single- 
handed.  Yet  the  nations  of  the  East  have  ac- 
cepted Christian  ideas  and  ways  as  rapidly  as 
they  have  as  a  rule  taken  to  the  fruits  of  West- 
ern science.  Are  they  slow  to  accept  the  New 
Testament  ?  Not  more  so  than  to  adopt  the 
Western  plow  or  to  substitute  the  spinning- 
jenny  for  the  hand-loom.  They  have  shown 
great  conservatism,  but  have  not  confined  it  to 
religion. 

6.  The  progress  of  Christianity  in  the  East  is 
rapid  when  we  consider  the  feebleness  of  the 
means  used  for  its  spread.  A  few  missionaries 
here  and  there  have  been  sent  into  lands  where 
the  population  is  immense.  Sometimes  a  single 
man  has  been  left  to  cope  with  the  doubt  and 
opposition  of  a  province  containing  millions  of 
souls.  It  is  a  law  of  mechanics,  for  the  arrange- 
ment of  pulleys  for  raising  great  bodies,  that 
what  is  gained  in  the  small  expenditure  of 
force  is  lost  in  time  required  for  the  operation. 


Success.  171 

To  expect  any  other  result  in  the  moral  eleva- 
tion of  a  people  is  to  be  unreasonable.  If  we 
choose  to  be  sparing  in  the  amount  of  money 
used  and  in  the  number  of  men  in  the  field, 
let  us  expect  results  only  of  corresponding 
magnitude.  On  the  whole,  the  words  of  the 
old  Latin  hymn,  which  stand  at  the  head  of 
this  chapter,  were  never  more  true  than  now : 

"The  banners  of  heaven's  King  advance, 
The  mystery  of  the  cross  shines  forth." 


INDEX 


Anglo-Saxon  ancestors,  our ;  their 
early  condition,  11,12;  conver- 
sion of,  13-16  ;  strength  of  char- 
acter, 18. 

Annihilation,  taught  and  desired,  64 

Athens,  ancient  religion  of,  21. 

Augustin,  14. 

Bible,  not  appreciated  In  the  Occi- 
dent, 35-37. 

Brahmanism,  struggle  with  Bud- 
dhism, 26. 

Buddhism,  origin  of,  26  ;  In  China, 
29. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  view  of  the 
world's  need,  70. 

Charity  among  pagans  whimsical, 
102. 

China,  Protestant  missions  In,  125 ; 
treaty  with  the  United  States, 
127. 

Chinese,  defect  in  character  of,  58. 

Cholera,  how  cured  by  Chinese  phy- 
sicians, 105. 

Christianity    an    Oriental    religion, 

.38: 

Christianity,  early  triumphs  of,  144. 

Chrysostom's  testimony  to  Buddha, 
.38. 

Coifi,  why  a  Christian,  96. 

Commerce  and  Christianity,  go. 

Commercial  value  of  paganism, 
54-56. 

Cost  of  paganism,  61. 

Criticism  of  missions,  140. 

Custom-house  in  China,  why  man- 
aged by  foreigners,  58. 

Darwin's  testimony  to  the  value  of 
missions,  113,  166. 

Diana  of  the  Ephesians,  how  su- 
perseded, 23. 

Disease,  papan  remedies  for,  105. 

Dress,  folly  of  adopting  native,  99. 

Drummond,  Henry,  appeal  to  the 
United  Stales    112, 


Egypt,  ancient  religion  of,  24. 

Ethics,  Ignored  by  pagan  religions, 
47- 

Exodus  of  Israel  a  lesson  to  mod- 
ern nations,  71. 

Fate,  Brahmanic  doctrine  of,  50. 

Fear  the  inspiration  of  ancient  relig- 
ions, 43. 

Federation  of  the  world,  7^. 

Franciscan  missions  on  Pacific  coast, 
157- 

Free  trade  and  tariff,  74. 

Gibbon,   disbelief    of    in    missions. 

Gold,  an  International  god,  93. 
Government  oppressive  in  the  Ori- 
ent, 109. 
Gregory,  13. 

Herrnhut   as   a  missionary  center, 

150-. 
Humanitarian  view,  100. 
Human  race,  solidarity  of,  68. 

Immigration,  effect  of,  73. 

India,  ancient  religion  of,  25  ;  war 
overruled  for  the  good  of,  84. 

Indians,  character  of,  120,  121  ;  in- 
justice toward,  122  ;  treaties 
with,  123. 

Interest,  rate  of  in  heathen  lands. 

International  law,  old  formula,  69. 
lona  as  a  missionary  center,  148. 

Japan,  religious  revolution  In,  163. 

Keshub  Chender  Sen's  testimony  to 
Jesus,  36. 

Medical    science,   Ignorance    of    in 

Orient,  104. 
Methods  of  missionary  work,  140. 
Mexico,  war  with,  137. 
Missionaries,  many  kinds  of,  9S. 


174 


Index. 


Missionary'  spirit  wanting  in  ethnic 

religions,  24. 
Mohammedanism,  triumphs  of,  24. 
Moravian  missions,  150. 

Napoleon,  policy  of,  70, 
National  seclusion  dangerous,  75. 
Nations,  mutual  relations  of,  68. 
New  Testament  idea  of  missions,  78. 

Obelisk,  a  witness,  24. 

Old  Testament  view  of  missions,  78. 

Oriental  Christ,  the,  36. 

Orientals,  more  religious  than  the 
Occidentals,  39  ;  want  of  enter- 
prise among,  91. 

Paganism  as  characterized  by  Bish- 
op Foster,  77. 

Pagan  religions,  costly,  61,  87;  now 
corrupt,  66,  67. 

Poverty  in  the  far  East,  107. 

Railroads  and  civilization,  72. 
Rock  Springs  outrage  on  Chinese, 

Rome,  ancient  religion  of,  20,  21. 

Salvation  Army  work,  160. 
Sandwich  Islands,  the  Gospel  in,  92. 
Science,  superiority  of  Western,  94. 
Scientific  objections  to  missions,  33. 
Selfishness,  dangerous,  75  ;  as  a  mis- 
sionary ally,  97.  ' 


Sickness,   want   of  care   In,  In   the 

East,  103. 
Slave-trade  in  Africa,  iii. 
Solidarity  of  humanity,  68. 
Sorrow,  pagan  religions  no  comfort 

in,  63. 
Statesman,  description  of  a  great, 

74-  , 

Statesmanship  and  missions,  114. 
Statistics  of  mission  work,  163. 
Steam-ships  and  commerce,  72. 
Stipendiary   and   martyr    missions, 

141. 
Strength  of  Protestantism  in  United 

States,  117. 
Success  of  modern  missions,  166. 

Tariff  and  Free  Trade,  74. 

Thomson,  Bishop,  on  Character- 
istics of  Orientals,  39. 

Treaties,  between  Christian  and 
pagan  lands,  57 ;  with  the  In- 
dians, 123. 

Volney's  view  of  religion,  33. 

Wars,  of  nineteenth  century',  80  ;  re- 
sults secured  by,  83 ;  modern, 
how  brought  about,  85  ;  some 
things  worse  than,  87  ;  inferior- 
ity of  Orientals  in  the  art  of,  94. 

Woman's  lot  in  the  East,  109. 

Works,  salvation  by,  a  tenet  of  all 
ethnic  religions,  41. 


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